Three local municipalities will join the Shelby County and Alabama state governments in giving residents a tax break for back-to-school purchases.

Alabaster, Montevallo and Hoover will all take part in the sales tax holiday Aug. 4-6 in one form or another.

While Alabaster will donate the taxes made from purchases during the tax holiday, the other two cities and county governments will remove tax completely from school-related purchases.

&8220;Our chamber of commerce president, Ben McCrory, recommended that we join the county in the tax holiday and the majority of our merchants liked the idea,&8221; Montevallo mayor Sharon Anderson said. &8220;The city council felt like it was a good idea to support and encourage residents to shop locally.&8221;

The holiday will exempt certain items from sales tax in Montevallo and Columbiana as well as on a county-wide basis.

Examples from the list of items that will be tax exempt during the holiday include apparel, computer hardware and software, athletic equipment and school supplies such as binders and writing utensils.

Columbiana mayor Allan Lowe said the decision to participate in the sales tax holiday was relatively easy.

&8220;With the rising cost of fuel and how everything else seems to always be going up, this is one little way we can try to help out folks around here,&8221; Lowe said.

While Alabaster will not participate directly in the tax holiday, city officials have promised to donate all taxes on school related items purchased over the holiday to local schools.

Both Anderson and Lowe pointed out, however, that this year&8217;s holiday is a trial run by their cities.

&8220;We&8217;ll see how things go this year and reevaluate the holiday at a later time,&8221; Anderson said.

The holiday officially begins on Friday, Aug. 4 at 12:01 a.m. and ends on Sunday, Aug. 6 at midnight.

TAX EXEMPT ITEMS:

A long list of school-related items will be tax exempt for Shelby County residents Aug. 4-6. Some of the more popular items on the exemption list include:

– Clothing (With sale price of $100 or less)

– Sports or recreational equipment

– Computer hardware and software (With sale price of $750 or less)

– School supplies (With sale price of $50 or less per item)

– Textbooks and instructional materials (Must be on official school book list)

– Protective items (Lab goggles, ear plugs, tool belts, gloves, ect.