HANCEVILLE — While people might be pining (in vain) for some winter weather to go with their upcoming Cullman Christmas holiday, municipal leaders are already casting their eyes toward springtime, when severe weather season heats up.

This week, Hanceville joined the growing list of area cities and towns that are once again signing on to participate in next year’s Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday — an annual tax waiver program overseen statewide by the Alabama Department of Revenue.

Throughout the last weekend of each February, the state suspends Alabama’s 4 percent general sales tax on qualifying storm readiness items, with many counties, cities, and towns also waiving their local sales taxes to sweeten the incentive.

At its regular meeting this week, the Hanceville City Council agreed to pause sales tax collection in the city during the upcoming year’s tax holiday weekend, which runs from 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 25 until twelve midnight on Sunday, Feb. 27. That means buying eligible items included in the state’s lengthy list of qualifying goods won’t cost Hanceville shoppers the city’s customary 9-cent sales tax.

You can find the full list of exempted items online at revenue.alabama.gov/sales-use/sales-tax-holidays/.

Combined with the state’s 4 percent and Cullman County’s general 4.5 percent sales tax, Hanceville’s in-town sales tax rate adds an additional half cent, for a total rate of 9 cents per dollar. Sales taxes at retail businesses that lie outside the city limits but within the Hanceville police jurisdiction are assessed at a slightly lower rate, at 8.75 cents on the dollar. Next year’s tax holiday will waive sales taxes for businesses in both areas.

So far, Cullman, Hanceville, Good Hope, and Fairview, as well as the county commission, all have committed to waiving local sales taxes for the 2022 severe weather holiday. All of Cullman County’s municipalities typically participate in the two separate sales tax holiday weekends that Alabama offers each year. In addition to the severe weather preparedness weekend in February, the state also organizes a back-to-school tax holiday each July.