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Commissioner Rodney Ellis and Texas Lawmakers Kick Off Tax-Free Weekend with Relief for Working Families

By CNN

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    August 5, 2026 (Houston Style Magazine) — HARRIS COUNTY — Long before online shopping carts, same-day delivery and children requesting school supplies by text message, Rodney Ellis had a practical idea: give Texas families a break when back-to-school bills begin piling up.

On Tuesday, August 4, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis stood alongside educators and members of the Texas House of Representatives to mark the approaching start of the 2026 Texas back-to-school sales tax holiday.

State Representatives Dr. Alma A. Allen of House District 131, Lauren Ashley Simmons of House District 146 and Ron Reynolds of House District 27 joined Ellis at his Precinct One office in Houston. Surrounded by “Tax Relief for Working Families” signage, the leaders highlighted how the annual sales tax holiday helps parents stretch household budgets while preparing children for another academic year.

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The gathering came ahead of the tax-free period, which runs from Friday, August 7, through midnight Sunday, August 9. During the three-day holiday, shoppers may purchase most qualifying clothing, footwear, school supplies and student backpacks priced below $100 without paying state or local sales tax.

Depending on the local tax rate, families can save approximately $8 for every $100 spent on qualifying merchandise. That might not buy a new laptop, but it can cover notebooks, pencils, folders or perhaps one more pair of school pants—which, as parents know, children have a mysterious ability to outgrow almost overnight.

The press conference also celebrated Ellis’ historic connection to the program.

While serving in the Texas Senate, Ellis proposed the sales tax holiday during the 1999 legislative session. His original proposal called for a weeklong exemption on items costing less than $200. The final legislation established a three-day holiday covering eligible clothing and footwear priced below $100.

Texas lawmakers later expanded the program. Student backpacks became eligible in 2007, followed by qualifying school supplies in 2009. The result is a public policy that has grown alongside generations of Texas students and remains one of the state’s most recognizable forms of direct consumer tax relief.

More than 25 years after its creation, the holiday remains especially important for working families confronting higher expenses for groceries, housing, utilities, transportation and other necessities. Back-to-school season may be filled with excitement, but the price of preparing multiple children can quickly turn enthusiasm into arithmetic.

The tax holiday does not eliminate that financial burden, but it gives families an opportunity to keep more of their money while supporting retailers and neighborhood businesses.

Qualifying purchases may be made in stores or through online, telephone, mail and custom orders, provided the sale occurs during the official holiday period. Each eligible item must be priced below $100; the exemption is determined item by item rather than by the shopper’s total bill.

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However, not every back-to-school purchase qualifies. Jewelry, handbags, luggage, wallets and many specialized athletic items remain taxable. Families should review the Texas Comptroller’s eligibility guidelines, prepare shopping lists and compare prices before joining the weekend rush.

Tuesday’s gathering demonstrated what lasting legislation can look like. A policy born in the Texas Legislature in 1999 continues delivering measurable benefits at cash registers across the state in 2026.

For Ellis, Allen, Simmons, Reynolds and the educators standing with them, the message was rooted in both history and household reality: helping students succeed also means supporting the families responsible for getting them ready.

One backpack, one pair of shoes and one tax-free receipt at a time, a Houston-born idea continues to make the beginning of the school year a little more affordable.

More information on Harris County Precinct 1, go to: hcp1.net/CommissionerEllis

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

Kierra Lee
KIELEESTYLE@GMAIL.COM
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Trump’s vaccine order is counterproductive and ‘wrong on so many levels,’ GOP lawmaker says

By CNN
(CNN) — Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, an increasingly sharp critic of President Donald Trump, on Sunday called the president’s vaccine order to separate injections for measles, mumps and rubella “wrong on so many levels” because, among other things, it would require children to receive more shots.“Let’s just take it from the perspective of the parent,” Cassidy, a doctor who chairs the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, said during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” show. “Now, instead of going to the doctor twice to get their child vaccinated, they have to go six times … Instead of mom or dad missing work twice, you know, coming out of their pocket, if you will, to take their child to the doctor, they have to miss work or take vacation or personal leave six times. This is inconvenient. It’s going to contribute to an increased loss of income.”“The president’s proposal is going to end up with more children being sick. And so who wants that? No one should want that,” Cassidy said.During a later appearance on ABC News’ “This Week,” the Louisiana senator said: “This is why the president’s poll numbers are down, because you’ve lost sight of affordability for the parent, you’ve lost sight of the convenience for the American family, you’ve lost sight of that which is driving higher costs in health care.”CNN has reached out the White House for a reaction to Cassidy’s criticism.Trump’s order says the combination vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella, called MMR, “should be administered in three separate single-disease shots,” and all childhood immunizations should be given at separate medical visits.Immunologists and vaccine experts say there’s no valid reason to do that.“Nothing bad can happen from what we are doing,” Trump said while speaking in the Oval Office on Monday. “The worst thing that could happen would be nothing happens. We’re not going to lose anything.”The executive order marked the latest blow for Cassidy, who cast a deciding vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary despite deep concerns about his anti-vaccine views.Ahead of that confirmation vote, Cassidy secured a series of commitments from Kennedy — including that the two would have an “unprecedentedly close collaborative working relationship” and Kennedy would not seek to undermine the government’s vaccine policies.But Kennedy began testing that pact within months, overhauling the government’s main vaccine advisory panel and amplifying skepticism of key vaccine policies — all while downplaying what has grown into the worst measles outbreak in the country in decades.Their already-frosty relationship hit a breaking point late last year, after the abrupt firing of the then-head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kennedy’s subsequent push to revamp the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule.Kennedy’s allies later joined Trump in openly backing a primary challenge to Cassidy that successfully denied him renomination earlier this spring.Since then, Cassidy has shown far greater willingness to criticize Trump and Kennedy, opposing the president on key issues such as the Iran war and his effort to establish an “anti-weaponization” fund. Cassidy and Kennedy’s relationship is effectively non-existent, people close to the two men said, and the two have rarely spoken in the last several months.Still, Cassidy has stressed that despite feeling freer to express his views, his final months in the Senate are not meant to serve as a revenge tour.That did not prevent him on Sunday from lashing out at the president’s latest policy, which he has also done in a series of social media posts.“If it wasn’t so potentially tragic, you would break out laughing at a comment like that,” Cassidy, told CNN’s Jake Tapper about Trump’s claim that nothing would happen as a result of what experts say is a dramatic reshaping of US vaccine policy.“As a physician who has seen people either die or get seriously ill from diseases that can be prevented by vaccines, this has the potential to decrease the protection that a child would receive against diseases which can be deadly,” Cassidy said.He added that if Trump is looking to improve children’s health while helping parents with costs, “this is the wrong thing to do.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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