Yeah but people who live there full time, will they be better off? Its going to stifle purchases as well.
You would be surprised, I live in the Nashville area with all it's bedroom communities. It has about a 9-10% sales tax, The area has an unbelievable run away growth, so I could say the sales tax has no effect in the area, but probably no income tax and a low property tax off sets the high sales tax, don't really know, I've been in Tennessee for about 30 years now and I don't even think about sales tax anymore when buying anything. I don't think I ever did.
“Its going to stifle purchases as well.”
I dunno... NOT having to pay 1.5% per year on your $300,000 assessed Real Estate value means you’d have to buy over $57,000 in goods before your 7.85% sales tax would cost you the same amount, and in most states with sales tax, groceries are excluded.
When renters are figured into the increased sales tax the state will pull in more money than before.