The tax free holiday could become a thing of the past, according to some lawmakers

Horry County, S.C. (WPDE) — The tax free holiday weekend is known as the second busiest shopping weekend of the year in South Carolina for back to school shopping.

But while there are benefits to the 6 percent sales tax exemption on things like school supplies and clothes, some lawmakers say its impacting state funding.

There are 16 states that participate in some form of tax free weekend holiday, and many business owners benefit from the once a year event.

"I’d see a drop in sales without this sales tax reduction," said John Reaves, owner of the Teacher's Touch.

Lawmakers said the costs of the tax free sales weekend is doing more harm than good.

"The evidence tends to indicate that they’re not particularly effective. I'm talking about, you know, various studies that have been done, you know, nationwide and often it seems to be kind of more of a political gimmick than really effective tax laws," said Representative Thomas E. Pope, chairman of the House Tax Policy Review Committee.

The South Carolina Department of Revenue reported in 2016 and 2017 the state lost more than $4 million combined during the sales tax holiday, And with 16.7 percent of the sales tax allocated for the Education Improvement Act, lawmakers said the holiday is just something the state can't afford.

"Really from a legislative standpoint, you know, we need to have the courage to make the hard decisions to give the state a more solid, viable tax base," said Representative Pope.

States like Georgia and North Carolina have done away with the sales tax holiday.

"During the tax free holiday, we get teachers from Georgia and from North Carolina driving in just for the holiday to shop with us. That’s our biggest weekend out of the year," said Reaves.

Horry County School District officials said, while the negative impacts of the holiday may hurt funding in more rural counties around the state, cutting the holiday wouldn't be an issue for them.

"We are pretty fortunate here in Horry County to have a pretty significant tax base and tourism base for that so we are funded very well," said School District spokeswoman, Lisa Bourcier.

As of right now, there isn’t a bill in the works to do away with the sales tax holiday, but some lawmakers say they’re working on figuring out a tax alternative.

The sales tax exemption holiday is set for Aug. 3rd through Aug. 5th.