Tax holiday good idea all year round

It may be a frustrating weekend for Omaha retailers, but then again, maybe not.

From 12:01 Friday through midnight Saturday, no sales tax, including school and local option sales tax, will be collected in Iowa on sales of clothing or footwear having a selling price of less than $100.

The definition of clothing includes everyday wear such as shirts and pants, dresses, uniforms, hats, socks, underwear, sandals and more. It does not include accessories like watches, jewelry, umbrellas, handkerchiefs, or special sporting equipment.

It's designed for back-to-school shoppers, but only if they do their shopping in Iowa. Missouri and more than a dozen other states have similar plans.

That's frustrating to State Sen. Bill Avery of Lincoln, who wants to see a tax holiday in Nebraska, but so far, hasn't been able to shepherd the plan through the Legislature.

It may be frustrating to Nebraska retailers on the Iowa border as well, but we're sure many of them are already planning to make lemonade out of lemons.

Iowa may get shoppers in the mood to buy back-to-school clothing, but they'll compete by having their own specials ready to entice buyers. Figure in the price of gasoline to drive across the Missouri River, and those Nebraska bargains will be very competitive.

But if it's a good idea to cut taxes to encourage shopping one day, what's wrong with doing so on the other 364 days in the year?

There are plenty of takers for Nebraska's half-billion dollar budget surplus, as Ed Howard's Capitol View column on this page indicates.

But rather than running up a surplus like that again next year, how about letting the taxpayers keep the money in their own pockets?