The holiday, which was started in 2000 as a way to reduce back-to-school shopping bills, falls on the weekend of Aug. 6-8. About 300 of the state's 1,100 schools will start the school year before Aug. 6, state Department of Education officials say.

State law requires the holiday be scheduled during the first weekend in August. During the weekend, many purchases such as clothes and computers are exempt from the state's 5 percent sales tax and any additional local county sales tax.

Not being able to take advantage of the sales tax holiday will pose a problem for many parents, particularly single parents and those with fixed incomes, said Marion Tarrant, program coordinator for the Anderson Housing Authority.

"Especially with single parents, any type of break that they can get, especially financially, is a help," Tarrant said.

At Westview Heights, a subsidized housing complex in Anderson, community members are asking for donations of school supplies and other staples to help cash-strapped parents, Tarrant said.

"For a child, going back on the first day of school with new clothes and new shoes means a lot," Tarrant said.

Anderson Interfaith Ministries has a program to provide free school backpacks and school supplies such as notebooks and pens to a number of children who qualify to receive free school lunch. The program will serve about 600 Anderson County public school students this year, said Linda Loparo, program coordinator.

Click here to return to story:
http://www.charleston.net/stories/071304/sta_13sales.shtml