The testimony had ended on my bill creating a task force to study how to assist seniors of limited means with home repairs, safety improvements, and energy saving renovations.

 

        I was thanking our witnesses when we were joined by a representative of the Cabinet agency that would be responsible for coordinating that review.

 

        “We’re already working on the dates that the task force will be meeting,” he told us.

 

         When the responsible agency is ready to implement your bill before anyone has voted on it, that is a very good sign.

 

—

 

            Should we impose the sales tax on car washes?

        

            “No,” five owners of such facilities told me.

 

            “We’re a luxury expenditure for people of modest means who may get their car washed for a special occasion,” one of them stated.

 

            “On my 21^st birthday,” I related, “I had a hunch that my parents were paying me a surprise visit at college.  So I made it to the car wash before they arrived.”

 

             It may have been a luxury, but it was not discretionary.