Car Seats Tax Exemption Bill

One of the bills introduced in the state senate this week is to make child care seats tax exempt. I imagine this bill will pass because no one wants to be on record as opposing it or making it harder for poor and working families to buy car seats. It is feel good legislation and not much more. The Sunday ads were unusual for only having one car seat mentioned. You can get one at Sears for $100, $145 for the car seat / stroller combo, which I highly recommend for convenience and ease of travel. Going online I found them for less – around $70 for the infant / toddler version. The older child booster seat can be had for around $20. The consignment shops around here always have a number of both for even less. Of course, you can go for the deluxe models, for $300 or more. The bill as currently written does not make exception for cost. In other words, the exemption would be for the top of the line models as well as the basic. If the intent of the bill is to help ensure that all children have car seats, how will making them tax exempt help? Are there really people who won’t buy a $100 child seat with tax but will buy it without? If they can’t afford a new car seat, why not buy a used one? How much revenue will the state lose to give some legislator free pr? I can’t see how making child car seats tax exempt will do any public good.

For those who would say that buying secondhand car seats would harm the dignity of lower income parents, I ask why. It’s one thing if there is research showing that secondhand seats are dangerous. If anyone knows of any please post a comment. My household used child A’s car seat for child B. Isn’t that secondhand? When Mr. Jane and I were expecting our first child we went to a church rummage sale and picked up a crib and a pair of baby monitors for a total of $35. We measured the crib slats and the distance between them was under the legal safety limits. Mr. Jane checked the paint for lead and found none. He stripped, primed, and repainted it. We used it for both kids and handed it down to someone else. We are also in a couple of hand-me-down chains. Every now and then I come home to find bags of kid clothes on my front step. Every now and then I drop bags of kid clothes on someone else’s. One morning we found a used Barbie plane, missing a few pieces and with a few dirt marks but still perfectly serviceable. A neighbor came home one day and found some of our “previewed” Thomas the Tank engine videos. We do have the means to buy a fancy new crib and new clothes but it seems more prudent at this point to make do with used and put the money into college funds. We do fork out the dough for some new clothes every season but we can pick and choose, filling in gaps or buying something nice for Christmas Eve services. Maybe what those with lower incomes lack is access to the informal networks that provide this kind of exchange. In lieu of a tax exemption for car seats perhaps the state senate could encourage neighborhood or church clothing swaps or rummage sales.

I just don’t see the value of making child car seats tax exempt. It takes money out of the state revenue stream and doesn’t provide anything in return. Any discussion on this is welcome. I’m very willing to be proven wrong.