Area Hairdressers, Barbers Fear New Tax Will Trim Their Bottom Lines

Local barbers and hairdressers fear that a proposed sales tax on haircuts will take a big cut out of their tips and profits.

Bonnie Fredericks, who owns hair salons in Oxford and the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, said her first thought upon hearing that Gov. Dannel Malloy's  calls for a tax on haircuts was, "Oh no, not another one."

"I have a tanning bed, and we already have a tax on tanning," she said, adding that local salons are already struggling to keep up with declining sales from the so-called tan tax that went into effect in the summer. "When you have businesses that are already struggling to make ends meet, and you impose a tax like this, it just makes it twice as hard."

Malloy's budget proposal for the 2011-12 fiscal year, which was unveiled on Feb. 17, calls for services such as manicures, pedicures and, yes, haircuts, to no longer be exempt from the state’s sales tax. The proposal, if approved, would also increase the sales tax from 6 percent to 6.25 percent; retail sales would jump to 6.35 percent if the budget is approved by the House and the Senate.

While Malloy is trying to balance a budget that has a projected shortfall of $3.6 billion for a two-year budget cycle, Fredericks believes the governor should look to make up that deficit elsewhere.

"If you look around at state government agencies, there appears to be a lot of waste," she said. "If they skim the fat, they might be able to save a lot of money."

Fredericks, who has owned  in Oxford for three years, also owns , which she's operated on Church Hill Road in Newtown for 14 years. She believes the proposed tax will have the same negative impact on hairdressers that she says the federal tan tax has had on the tanning industry.

"There have already been two (tanning) businesses in Newtown that have closed since the tax went into effect, and I think it has a lot to do with the additional tax," she said.

As she prepared to cut a client's hair on a recent weekday afternoon, Fredericks lamented the fact that such hair appointments have been fewer and further between in recent years. She says people have looked to save money by cutting back on services such as hairdressing and luxuries such as tanning and manicures. An additional tax, she said, is just going to be another reason for customers to stay away or go longer between cuts.

"This will be a no-win situation for everyone because if a business that is already struggling doesn't survive, then there are going to be no taxes paid," she said.

The same concerns are being expressed in other local communities.

, a native of Naugatuck who recently opened a barbershop in the Borough's downtown, said he understands the state is hurting, but so, too, are small business owners.

He is trying to make a go of it in a downtown which, like many in municipalities in the Naugatuck Valley and nationwide, have struggled to keep small commercial businesses afloat after industries that employed tens of thousands of potential customers closed their doors.

When industry was booming, people once poured out of rubber factories and metal processing facilities in downtown Naugatuck and would flock to businesses downtown on their lunch breaks and at the shifts' end. They would grab a bite to eat, go shopping and, possibly, get a haircut.

When factories closed, people no longer frequented local shops, and the once vibrant main streets in our industrial towns suffered much like the people in those communities. Church Street in Naugatuck, where Palmieri's New Era Barbershop is located, has been in a downward spiral for the past 20 years. The fact that people now head to the local Walmart for prices that the local mom and pops can’t afford to offer only compounds matters.

"Business is dry as it is," Palmieri said. "There's not a lot of money in community barbershops. This is going to hurt the hometown barbers even more because people are going to go to Walmart and buy their own razors to cut their own hair; they'll trim their own beards."

In an effort to combat such penny-pinching temptations from his customers, Palmieri tries to offer a service that people can’t give themselves or find at the local mall, where customers are quickly rushed in an out of barber chairs like cattle.

When a customer asks for a beard trim, Palmieri meticulously performs the craft in the old-fashioned style. He wraps a warm, moist towel around the face and neck of his bearded male patrons before lathering the area with hot shaving cream and trimming excess hair with a straight razor.

It’s the type of service Naugatuck resident Steve Lister says he will always save time and money for. Still, he’s fed up with what he calls “another damn tax.”

"Always, always, always the answer they give is to go to taxes," he said. "Why can't we look at something like putting tolls on highways rather than taxing people for something else? It seems like everything you can think of, they will find a way to tax it. ...I can't imagine this would make much money or would be good for local business."

Still, at least one veteran hairdresser believes the industry will survive.

Bill Possidento, owner of , which has operated in Brookfield for 19 years, admits the tax will be an inconvenience for customers and local salon owners, especially those who do their own bookkeeping, which is the majority of them. But he believes there are certain services people won't skimp on, and their hair is among them.

"People are still going to get their hair cut," he said. "I think some people will gripe about it for a while, but in the end, I don't think it's going to change our business much."