10% Tanning Tax Goes Into Effect Today

Neon Beach Tanning Club is a new mom and pop salon in Odessa. Owner Mark Threadgill knows how hard it is for a small business to succeed. Threadgill said the new tax could put him in a bind.  

"I think initially it will cut our business quite a bit, simply because people don't want to pay it," said Threadgill.  

Threadgill lowered the salon’s popular tanning fee by almost half, in order to stay afloat. It used to cost tanners $30 to use a level 1 bed, now it’s only $15.99. 

“That’s the only way we can combat it, " he said.           

The tax may also weigh into their lotion sales.     

"The cost of them right now is difficult to sell them, but then you add another $3 onto the tanning and people are not going to want to buy lotion," explained Threadgill.                       

But tanners said the tax won’t stop them from tanning.           

"I know it won't affect me because I've tanned forever and that's not going to change," said tanner Debra Philips.

Alwana Mellick, however, hopes the tax will have people think twice before going tanning. She frequently sees people with skin damage from the sun and tanning beds.         

“If you can see what the tanning beds have done to the skin, you’d never get in one. I mean they’ve [tanners] got brown spots, they’ve got growths, besides cancer,” said clinical aesthetician Alwana Mellick, owner of Thyme Skin Care in Midland.  

According to CNN, the tax is expected raise $2.6 billion during the next 10 years. The money will go toward funding healthcare overhaul.