Was sales tax holiday a good idea?

Today, all day, you can purchase any item valued at $2,500 or less from a Massachusetts retailer and not have to pay the normal 5 percent sales tax.

The proposal to have the Bay State become New Hampshire - where there is no state sales tax - for a day, was conceived on Beacon Hill last spring as a means of helping retailers through the summer doldrums and also attract back-to-school shoppers. Many stores were anticipating a healthy increase in traffic, with some adding staff and expanding their hours to accommodate the additional shoppers.

State officials hope the sales tax holiday will help spur the economy and allow local retailers to grab some of the business that might otherwise have gone to their competition to the north.

On the other hand, even as this big day approached, there was confusion as to how this program would work. Could consumers buy something today and pay for it later without having to pay the sales tax? (No). Does it apply to all purchases? (No. Motor vehicles, boats, meals and telecommunications services, including cell phones, are not exempted from taxation.)

During the debate on this measure, objections were also raised to the fact that rather than encourage new purchases, the one-day tax holiday would hurt early-summer sales as people held off on major purchases in anticipation of the Aug. 14 tax moratorium. And some said the state could not afford to forego even a single day of sales tax revenue.

What do you think? Was the sales tax holiday a good idea? Should the state be sacrificing money that would otherwise go to providing needed governmental services? Or should the sales tax be eliminated altogether?