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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Sales Tax Free Weekend Costly for Missouri Families?

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Thursday, August 4, 2011   

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Missouri parents of school-age children will get a little help balancing their budget this weekend, as the 2011 Sales Tax Holiday lets consumers save state and local sales tax on selected clothing, school supplies and computers. Tax reform advocates say a sales-tax-free weekend is nothing more than a political gimmick and does not really boost the economy.

State Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford is a member of Missourians for Tax Justice. She says people with a higher income are able to defer spending until the sales tax holiday, something middle- or lower-income families are not able to do.

"If we really want to help the families that are struggling, rather than the sales tax holiday, we should make our income tax system more modern and more fair. We have a tax table that we haven't changed since 1931."

A State Department of Revenue spokesperson says it is hard to calculate how much sales tax revenue is lost in Missouri during this weekend, but other states estimate between $10 million and $15 million. The holiday ends Sunday at midnight.

Before modernizing the state's income tax system, Oxford says, the rhetoric about taxes needs to change.

"Unfortunately, at this point we have a very negative attitude prevailing about taxes in our country, instead of thinking of them as the way that we share responsibility and commitment to our community to invest together for our common good."

Seventeen states now participate in some type of sales-tax-free weekend. Some, such as Georgia, have stopped participating in the holiday because of the loss of revenue, however. This is the eighth year for Missouri.



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