In the past year, horse enthusiasts bought more than half a billion dollars worth of prized Kentucky horseflesh on which they paid no state sales tax. Tax breaks covered the horses.
Utility companies spent hundreds of millions of dollars for mountains of coal on which they paid no sales tax. A tax break covered the coal.
But when business owner Mike Sause bought a DVD player and two DVDs at a Best Buy in Lexington before Christmas, he paid $12 in sales tax, the 6 percent typically charged on tangible goods. continue reading