By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

HAHNVILLE – Following suit with a similar proposal passed in St. John Parish in June, the St. Charles Council and School Board have approved a local sales tax holiday for goods bought within the parish.

The council unanimously approved the ordinance, which will waive sales taxes on purchases up to $2,500. Like the St. John holiday, the tax break is scheduled for August 1 and 2 of this year, and will coincide with the state sales tax holiday scheduled for that weekend.

St. Charles Public Information Officer Renee Allemand said the proposal waives the 3 percent tax collected by the school board, as well as the 2 percent tax levied by the council. She said the statewide holiday eliminates the 4 percent tax regularly collected by Louisiana government.

Allemand said the holiday applies to all consumer purchases of tangible personal property except automobiles and meals at restaurants. She said the timing of the holiday was designed to give residents a bit of a break as they begin to purchase school supplies for kids heading back to school, and hurricane materials in anticipation of the height of hurricane season.

The holiday in St. John was initially proposed by St. John School Board President Gerald Keller. He said the school board agreed to cease collection of its 2.25 percent tax in May of this year. The St. John council followed suit with their 2.25 percent tax, and St. John Sheriff Wayne Jones also agreed to do away with his office’s .24 percent tax for two days.

Allemand said that since the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office does not collect a sales tax, no endorsement was necessary.

In other action from the St. Charles meeting, the council unanimously approved Parish President V.J. St. Pierre’s appointment of Grant M. Dussom as the parish’s new finance director.

Allemand said Dussom is a New Orleans native and a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans. He was previously an audit consultant with Deloitte & Touche LLP of New Orleans, an Audit and Enterprise Risk Services firm, where he gained auditing experience working with energy, manufacturing, banking and governmental related companies.