Pandering to the gun nuts is going to potentially cost the state of West Virginia 3 million bucks:
Speaking of vetoes, Manchin will be put in a quandary over a bill passed Saturday to have a sales tax holiday on firearms in October (HB4251).
Offering a tax-free weekend on gun sales potentially could get West Virginia booted out of the Streamlined Sales Tax agreement — an agreement between about 20 states, and retailers within those states, to collect and remit sales taxes on purchases (mainly via the Internet) that otherwise would go uncollected.
For West Virginia, that arrangement currently brings in about $3 million a year, which could be forfeited if the state violates the agreement by allowing a gun tax holiday, expected to save gun buyers only about $25,000 in sales taxes.
Legislators who voted for the bill not only picked up brownie points from the National Rifle Association, which was pushing the bill, but also knowingly put Manchin into a position of losing popularity points with some voters if he is obligated to veto the bill.
Can anyone explain why we ever would need a sales tax holiday on guns?
Tom Johnson
So that people will buy more guns, you big silly.
demkat620
Because Obama’s gonna take their guns!
OT John but, WVU got hosed.
kommrade reproductive vigor
ReaLAMEricans who don’t have a plane and a pilot’s license still need to defend themselves from the IRS. Duh.
jeffreyw
From Wikipedia:
Pretty much answers that question, eh?
Chief
OT: Which WVU got hosed. I watched the Mounaineers squeak out a win over Georgetown in the Big East final last night.
Phyllis
We have one in SC. I know, color everyone who comments on this site shocked. I guess gun acquirers felt left out during the state sales tax holiday held in August every year that allows you to purchase back-to-school clothes and supplies tax-free. I mean, a gun is a sort of supply, isn’t it? I mean for the survivalist crowd anyway.
4tehlulz
hurricane season is coming up, so people need to stock up on supplies.
Just Some Fuckhead
If tax holidays actually work, West Virginia needs to do one for dentistry.
Citizen_X
@Just Some Fuckhead: Thread’s over. Here’s your trophy!
Violet
God fearin’ Murkins shouldn’t have to pay undemocratic soshulist taxes to the leftist Obama guvmint on something as essential to freedom and bein’ a true patriot as are guns!
Guster
It’s a holiday. What kind of Stalinist is against holidays?
arguingwithsignposts
@Just Some Fuckhead:
This is a good question. Do they actually work? What do they achieve? And, given the state of most states’ budgets these days, are they worth continuing?
Nellcote
Is the NRA a front for gun manufacturers? The manufacturers seem to be the only ones benefiting from this push to buy guns (and ammo).
burnspbesq
Guerrero’s explanation of why Duke jumped over Syracuse to be the number three overall seed is pretty unconvincing, even to a dookie.
Kansas got a brutal draw for an overall number one seed.
drew42
Woo-hoo! Syracuse shits the bed this past week, and still gets a #1 seed over these so-called “Mountaineers.”
Democracy! Whisky! Boeheim!
kmeyer57
Duh, the NRA has long been a front group for the small arms industry. Of course they are praising this.
Svensker
Well, since it’s not going to be illegal to discriminate against gays afterall, somebody’s gotta do something, amirite?
Also, too, JSF win.
Kryptik
@burnspbesq:
Guerrero’s onion analogy was apt, because the explanations stunk.
And John….is it bad of me that I’m wishing for the days of Wise?
Josh Huaco
Baylor is the 3 seed in the South, with the sub-regional in New Orleans, and if they survive that, the regional is in Houston. Considering where the program was after The Scandal, this is amazing.
Mike Kay
Cool.
I need a new Cruise missile.
Brian J
Assuming there’s a legitimate policy angle to this, perhaps this is an attempt to help out gun retailers in the state. Other than that, I haven’t the foggiest idea.
On a somewhat related note, I recently learned from an acquaintance who works at a Dick’s Sporting Goods near where I work that his store sells, on a normal day, 15-20 guns. (Maybe less on a weekday, maybe more on a weekend.) I live in a part of the country where, aside from perhaps soccer moms, there doesn’t appear to be much to hunt. If you travel to a nearby wooded area, perhaps yes, but I don’t think there’s really that much of a hunting culture, either. So you can imagine my surprise to hear that almost 100 guns per week are being purchased at this store, and if memory serves me correctly, it’s the same at other stores.
Which begs the question: why the hell are so many guns being bought? I know nothing about hunting, but I don’t imagine it’s like tennis, where you need to buy balls frequently, and I don’t know what else you’d be buying guns for.
The Dangerman
@Mike Kay:
There’s a Katie Holmes joke in here someplace.
Winston Smith
Every time you pay tax on a gun purchase, the IRS embeds a tracking chip in your brain.
Duh.
burnspbesq
Purdue loses to Siena in the first round. Bet a car payment on it.
demo woman
The state of GA is talking about doing away with our tax free holidays because of revenue shortages. I can’t imagine that now is the time to decrease revenue.
The governor needs to allocate funds to send the legislature of WV back to school so they can learn how to balance a budget. Why isn’t this filed under assholes?
J.W. Hamner
Two words: Zombies.
SpotWEld
I take this as a solid sign that the gun market is glutted.
That all the panic buying in ’08 and ’09 followed by record unemployment has flooded the 2nd hand gun market.
NRA wants to keep the gun manufacturers happy and the cut in the sales tax will direct people to new gun sales
jeffreyw
@J.W. Hamner:
Two more words: Goddamn rattlesnakes.
GReynoldsCT00
@The Dangerman:
I doubt Tom has much of a missile…
Nick
In fairness, October is prime hunting season, so most hunters buy guns in the Fall, so if you WERE going to do a tax holiday, that would be the time to do it
but I get your point.
The Last Reasonable Bush Supporter
1. First of all, ooo dabbba bub lubbba gooba gab.
2. Second, and more importantly, considering the werg nerga fleega flug of America’s founding fathers, derf derfa derfaderf.
3. Finally, as anyone who has ever run a business knows, yup yumpa jeeba doob.
dr. bloor
Back to school shopping.
Anne Laurie
@Nellcote:
You forget the great American prison industry. More guns on the street, more & worse crimes enabled by easy access to firepower, more work for contractors building & staffing more prisons at a higher markup. Seriously — one of the few growth industries right now!
PeakVT
@arguingwithsignposts: Sales tax holidays work great as PR for incumbents. As a way to permanently boost economic activity, not so much.
bcinaz
Well duh. Isn’t against the rules to be black and President?
dms
It’s West Virginia, Jake.
anticontrarian
Because conservatives want guns, but they don’t want to pay for buses, schools and roads.
Shade Tail
Duh! Because it stimulates the economy and creates jobs!
You know, just like all republican tax cuts do.
low-tech cyclist
Can anyone explain why we ever would need a sales tax holiday on guns?
Because the NRA isn’t happy unless it’s creating new ways for legislators to kiss its ass.
Jamey
Can anyone explain why we ever would need a sales tax holiday on guns?
I propose we call it a Doc Holliday.
Jamey
#Dangerman:
Have you checked the closet?
r€nato
@low-tech cyclist:
pretty much. I think the only reason this isn’t being discussed in Arizona (where several legislators are always ready and willing to introduce whatever ridiculous legislation the NRA dreams up to incrementally expand gun rights), is that the state is so damned broke. Discussion of a gun sales tax holiday would likely expose too well just how bought-and-sold some of our legislators are.