Mississippi State University has fully implemented the legislation signed on March 31 by Gov. Haley Barbour to exclude retail taxes on student meal plans.
Sales taxes will remain in effect for convenience store purchases and at retail locations, and the exclusion will only affect meal plans, namely the flex dollars program.
Bill Broyles, assistant vice president for student affairs said information technology services made the software changes over the holiday weekend which would end the taxing of meal plan funds, namely those used in student flex dollars.
“It just required a little reprogramming on our part for the computer systems.” Broyles said. “It went into effect actually last Friday when we had a day off.”
He said ITS used the time to verify there would be no complications during the transition.
“They were able to test it, and so they were able perfect the system and make sure students could save that 7 percent on all their purchases starting Monday,” Broyles said.
He said while students might not notice the change immediately, they will be saving money.
“When people swipe their ID cards and they might not even notice it [the change], Broyles said. “So students will understand that they are saving 7 percent on all their meal plan purchases.”
Broyles said he appreciated the state legislature making this change possible.
“They took it on and made it possible to pass some savings on to the students,” he said.
Junior business major Joonghyun Hwang said he frequently uses the flex dollars program and appreciates the dropping of the additional tax.
“I think they should expand the program, maybe by making more flex dollars available,” he said.
Junior mechanical engineering major Jonathan Lewallen said although he uses Moneymate instead of flex dollars, any opportunities to save money will be appreciated by students.
“Overall, if you’re having to pay for all of your food; when you have less money you have less,” he said. “If you don’t have to pay for a tax or any other way for it to cost less, to students that can be a big help.”