If you are shopping online, you are shooting yourself in the foot. The local sales taxes you are saving are the much-needed dollars the city, parish and school board needs to provide you the services you demand. In 1981 the Supreme Court ruled that if you purchased something, say at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Neiman’s did not have to collect state sales tax because they did not have a store located in Louisiana at that time. South Dakota is trying to change this. They want all purchases taxed, particularity on-line purchases.
An interesting study was just released that shows when sales taxes are charged on an on-line purchase, 10 percent of the shoppers decided to shop locally. On items costing over $250, over 30 percent of the people decided to shop at home. Is there hope more will shop at home, JT doubts it. One of the problems with collection of on-line sales taxes is there is no mechanism for collecting local sales tax.
The state will probably start getting their taxes in the near future. But, JT wonders if Gov. John Bel Edwards will let any of that money slide on down to the local governments? The best thing you can do is buy locally. The sales taxes you pay will go a long way to finance the local services you enjoy. If you do not, all of Natchitoches could be like the parish road system. Terrible! Terrible for there is no money. Many parish residents do not pay property taxes because of homestead exemption. Without your sales taxes there will not be any money for the local governments.
Louie Bernard dropped by the Times office to announce his candidacy for state senate. While he delivered a comprehensive and well thought out official statement, what he said to JT really spoke about the person, and the candidate, all rolled into one. Louie and JT were talking about the joy of being a grandparent. “As I watch my grandkids play in the field, it occurs to me – if we do anything for any reason other than for them, to make this place, to make Louisiana a better place for them, then we’re doing it for the wrong reason.” Yea, that says a lot.
Isn’t that how we should look at things? Then he went on to say, “I cannot change my core values, it’s like my DNA. I am a child of the Depression era. I learned to save, to treasure, to make do and appreciate. That is the way I was raised and there’s no getting away from that.” Mmm hmm.
That is Louie in a nutshell. What you see is what you get.
