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Governor Whitmer Proposing Suspending Sales Tax on School Supplies

On Tuesday, Governor Whitmer proposed suspending the state sales tax on school supply items. It’s part of the MI Back to School Plan.

It comes as the price of school supply items is on the rise.

“It has definitely gone up quite a bit,” said Jennifer Thompson, parent. “I usually try to buy more supplies for the classroom and stuff, too, and that’s been a little limited. I had to go a little bit lighter on that, just with the price increase.”

Teachers are paying more to get their classrooms ready for the year.

“We have teachers who spend well over $1,000 every year on school supplies,” said Thomas Morgan, Spokesperson for Michigan Education Association. “That’s not including the additional money they spend on snacks for kids who aren’t sent to school with anything else to eat except lunch.”

“We’re given $200 from the school to start our classrooms with supplies,” explained Rachelle VanHouten, a teacher at Cadillac Area Public Schools. “We buy pencils, crayons, markers, notebooks, folders. I usually spend more money on stuff to keep the room going. If we run out of supplies during the year, that could be art supplies or paper.”

Nineteen states are temporarily suspending sales tax on school supply items.

“It’s a little bit at a time, and every little bit adds up. So I think it will be great in the long term,” said VanHouten.

Governor Whitmer is proposing Michigan be next. The tax holiday would be on items like pencils and crayons to computers.

“We’re at a critical point right now, and we need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to invest in our local public schools and giving our kids every opportunity to succeed,” said Morgan. “They deserve the very best and every opportunity that previous generations had.”

It’s up to the state legislature to pass a tax break like this. They are currently on break until September 7.

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