A break on breaks or going broke

Florida taxpayers are about to get another tax free holiday.

Face it: Your old refrigerator has seen better days.

It's time to bid the venerable icebox farewell, but before you go out and just pick one up, the state wants to offer you a deal:

If you'll wait a week or so, and spend a little bit more to buy one that's much more efficient when it comes to electricity use, the state won't charge you sales tax.

Florida's first energy-efficiency sales tax holiday lasts Oct. 5-11. It offers consumers the option to buy appliances including refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, air conditioners, ceiling fans, lightbulbs and a few other items, as long as the price is $1,500 or less.

That's a saving of 6.5 percent in St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties, and 6 percent in most other counties.

"The retailers are excited about having this," said Randy Miller, executive vice president of the Florida Retail Federation in Tallahassee. "This is encouraging people to use more energy-efficient products. The idea is looking forward to being more environmentally friendly in the future.

"With the cost of electricity these days, anything you can do to encourage people to use more energy-efficient products is a good public state policy," he said.

The tax break is part of the Florida Energy Act passed by the legislature in May. The items must bear the federal Energy Star label, which indicates the product meets or exceeds the requirements of that program, which was launched by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1992.

The tax break applies only to items bought for personal use, and doesn't apply to purchases for trade, business or resale.

TFM generally sees any tax break as a good one. If your appliances are broke or breaking down, this will be a good time to replace them.

That's of course if you can afford these new appliances. They don't come cheap. When TFM moved into his present home, every major appliance with the exception of the refrigerator was changed. I was Boynton Beach Sears Roebuck's favorite customer for a while. I'm sure these stores are excited for this sales period and will lower prices. However the break only lasts one week. If your dishwasher breaks down at Halloween you're out of luck.

How long will it be before a politician claims credit for some senior citizen getting a new washing machine? If Irv Slosberg hadn't lost his re-election bid last month, I'm sure it would not take long at all.

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