If there were no sales tax-free holidays, would the situation be any different for consumers? We asked consumers that question in a survey, and 70 percent said a tax-free week didn't affect their shopping.

From our perspective, they're setting a floor for funding transit from the motor vehicle sales tax and a ceiling for contributions to the highway user tax distribution fund for highways.

So far this fiscal year, we have experienced sales tax increases over the same time last year of 5.30 percent in October, 9.52 percent in November, 22.73 percent in December, 15.78 percent in January, and 14.58 percent in February.

Sales are going the way they did in the last two years, which was after Thanksgiving, things settled down. But we also see, I think, the power of weather on these numbers.

Every week the state puts out a new sales tax permit report that you can ask for sorted by ZIP code. We get a copy of that report to make sure that new folks coming into the city are reporting to the correct city. Every week there's an error.

Over twenty years, we expect to generate about $80 million or more in sales tax revenue.