Salons Organize To Fight Chafee Tax Plan

A grassroots campaign is forming in East Greenwich as 25 people showed up at Kenneth Cote’s salon on Main Street Monday night at the first meeting of a new group opposed to a proposed sales tax on salons and personal grooming establishments proposed by Gov. Lincoln Chafee in his budget address last week.  

Rhode Island Salons United Against Taxing Services expects more than 200 people when it meets next at the Paul Mitchell Skin Care School in Cranston on March 28.

Richard Bump, of Kenneth Cote and a member of the group’s board of directors,  gives credit for the start of the movement to Lynne Jennings, who works at a salon in Cranston. She was so upset by the tax proposal she set up a page on Facebook and quickly attracted several hundred friends, he said.

By Tuesday morning the group had printed a one-page handout outlining its objections to the tax, and set up a system to gather petition signatures online and in salons. By the next meeting, they intend to have plans in place for a statehouse rally in April and presentations at upcoming legislative hearings.

Bump said state Rep. Doreen Costa of North Kingstown, a member of the House Small Business Committee, attended the organizational meeting and is providing the group with information on the legislative process and dates of key hearings.

Jennings and Bump made their first foray into the public arena Tuesday with a call to the John DePetro talk show on WPRO. When a caller critical of the salon business sidetracked the discussion, Bump told DePetro, “We have to keep this focused on the Chafee budget proposal. He is not going to balance this on the backs of consumers and small businesses.” 

Local salon owners told East Greenwich Patch last week that customers have already stretched out their visits due to the difficult economy, adding that a sales tax isn’t going to help. There are more than 25 salons and personal grooming businesses in East Greenwich that would be affected by the proposed tax.

Bump said Kenneth Cote hasn’t had a problem with customers changing their habits, crediting 34 years in business on Main Street plus aggressive promotional campaigns of coupons and other incentives to keep customers coming in.