Barre Gazette ~ July 17, 2008

House Speaker DiMasi and our local elected representatives claim that we can not afford our state’s traditional sales tax holiday this August. They claim that the millions of dollars in lost revenue during that weekend would have too negative of an impact.

Once again, our elected officials have lost sight of the fact that we need relief. Our traditional tax holiday has not only saved us as tax payers millions of dollars for the past several years, but has assisted our local business owners tremendously during a traditional slow sales period.

Our local elected representatives need to realize that this tax free weekend is a stimulus package that trickles down. When you give an incentive for families to go out and spur our economy by saving the sales tax from a purchase, they are going out to eat, filling their gas tank, and many other activities that are all collecting tax. We can not afford a two day tax holiday? Ladies and gentlemen, can we afford not to?

Stephen J. Comtois II
Candidate for State Representative
Fifth Worcester District