Report Taxfree Spree

Local merchants, many of whom were trying to move out merchandise with winter clearance sales during a traditionally slow retail period, said they were pleased with the results of the one-week suspension of sales tax that ended Friday and would like to see the experiment repeated.

"It was very successful for us," said Tom Steele, an owner of Above the Potatoes at the corner of Main Street and Newtown Lane in East Hampton. "People really enjoyed not having to pay the sales tax. We saw a significant rise in sales."

Although the state and county are again collecting sales taxes, Mr. Steele said the store would continue its "tax-free zone" promotion through Sunday by giving customers an extra 8.25-percent discount on the men's and women's clothing it sells.

"We had bigger sales than we usually do at this time of the year," said Sal LaCarrubba, an owner of LaCarrubba's clothing store on Main Street in Amagansett. "We had a storewide 25 percent off sale on top of the 8.25 percent. People really took advantage of it."

"I was surprised how few people knew there was no sales tax," said Jennie Voorhees, a clerk at Punch, a women's and children's store on Newtown Lane. "Once they found out, they were happily surprised." The store was "definitely busier than usual," she added, "especially during the first couple of days."

"From everything I've heard, it was overwhelmingly successful," said State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. "Certainly consumers liked it and businesses liked it."

There have already been calls to offer another tax-free week, perhaps in late August or just after Labor Day to spur sales of back-to-school clothing. Mr. Thiele said he thought "the chances are excellent" the state will approve it.

The tax suspension, which started Jan. 18, is expected to cost Suffolk County about $1.6 million in revenue, and County Legislator George Guldi said he doubted it would be possible to offer it again this year.

"About all this rhetoric of doing it again: We projected our budget based on 51 weeks of sales tax revenue back in October," he said. "If we are going to do another week, we'll have to make that up somewhere, and I don't know where it will come from."

Nonetheless, Mr. Guldi said he took advantage of the savings. "I bought shirts," he said.

Although Mr. Thiele said he would support a permanent repeal of the sales tax on clothing "if it got to the floor" of the Assembly, he added that he thought that would be highly unlikely. "Because of the budget constraints of local governments, the counties in particular, I think it would be very difficult to get a complete and permanent repeal" of the tax, he said.

While talk of tax cuts is a perennial political issue, Mr. Thiele said, "school tax relief rates higher than sales tax relief for most people."

Mr. LaCarrubba said he would welcome a repeal. "It would definitely make a difference," he said. "It would stimulate sales and keep people from taking bus trips to Pennsylvania" to shop.

Mr. Steele agreed that repealing the tax would help business. "All the people who are driving to New Jersey or using mail order catalogues to save on sales tax would drop those dollars in New York State," he said. "It would lead to more income, more taxes, and more jobs."

He said he was confident the state would see the wisdom of getting rid of the tax and even offered a symbolic carrot to Governor Pataki. "If they were to drop it altogether, I'd wash the Governor's car every week for a year," he said.