County clothing and footwear tax deal returns April 1

Area shoppers spending $110 or less on clothing and footwear will soon get a break, again.Chautauqua County Executive Greg Edwards reminded businesses and residents Monday that on April 1, clothing and foot-wear under $110 will once again be tax-ex-empt. The reminder comes after the state Legislature in 2010 halted the tax-exemption status in an effort to increase the state's revenue.
"The state has modified its tax policy on numerous occasions as to the sales tax exemption on clothing," Edwards said Monday. "The county policy has not changed but businesses need to be aware of this upcoming modification so that they may act accordingly."The County Executive said he has received calls from many vendors who are unclear on the sales tax in the county. "Many vendors don't know what their obligations are," he said.
Edwards added that he hopes money saved through the tax exemption goes back to the county in the form of increased shopping."I think the impact is that those dollars saved can be reinvested in Chautauqua County," Edwards said. "For that, I'm all for it. But it's really my desire to let the vendors know what their obligations are to New York state."The state Legislature created a three-phase change to its sales tax exemption that would "affect counties across New York state and eventually restore the tax exemption to its previous amounts," Edwards said.The company also makes special orders. Caballero claims to have made a bullet-resistant kimono for the “enigmatic” Hollywood tough guy Steven Segal, and bullet-resistant tunics and Bible covers for threatened priests. The company experimented with shank-proof underwear for prisoners, but the idea never caught on.
The presidents of Paraguay, El Salvador and Venezuela have been clients; former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is a repeat customer and a friend, Caballero said.But Colombians are no longer his primary buyers. As this nation’s homicide rate has been cut in half since 1995, violence has been on the rise in neighboring Venezuela and Ecuador, and throughout Central America.The shift has been hard on some in the industry: When Caballero started out, he said there were 35 Colombian companies that made armored cars. Now there are six. Caballero managed to stay afloat by turning his domestic enterprise into a global company that now exports 96 percent of its products.