Disaster supply sales tax holiday on hold
While the Atlantic hurricane season officials starts June 1, the first month of the season is often slow, with no storms to meet with the hype of the season starting and the urge to plan and prepare.
In the Pacific Ocean, Mother Nature has already started the party.
Climatologically, the eastern Pacific storm season begins May 15, and by this week there has already been three named storms, affecting the western coast of Mexico or southern tip of the Baja Peninsula.
This week, another low-pressure area was forecast to also form into a named system by the end of the week.
Tropical Storm Alvin formed May 28 and approached the south tip of Baja with increased surf and waves. It’s outer bands brought heavy rains to Mexico City, disrupting its public transportation for a time, and remnant moisture after it spun down from its tropical characteristics reached the southwestern United States.
Barbara and Cosme each formed just west of the Mexican coastline at different times on Sunday. Barbara became a hurricane on Monday, and Cosme was forecast to do the same on Wednesday, but both were forecast to move to the northwest into an area of hostile winds and colder Pacific Ocean waters, which would make them dissipate, the National Hurricane Center said.
The NHC also gave another disturbed area south of southern Mexico a 60% chance of developing by the weekend, but it too is entering the same hostile area as the previous storms.
Waiting for Legislature to approve sales tax holiday
Normally in this section, we annually detail the state’s sales tax holiday on disaster preparation goods—the tools that come in handy while weathering then surviving the aftermath of a storm like a hurricane.
And, while lawmakers put in plans for another holiday—they’ve been in place by June since 2017—the state House of Representatives and Senate have not been able to agree on the points of the state’s budget as of yet—other tax reform such as property taxes and an overall break in the state sales tax have been prioritized.
With no budget in place, no tax holiday on things like generators, flashlights, batteries, pet travel items are in place. The other usual sales tax holidays for things like concert and sporting event tickets, hunting season and Back to School supplies are not in place yet, either.
By law, a budget must be passed by July 1. Last year, the state held a second round of disaster supply tax relief in late August, meaning that could be included in the budget as well.
