The Utah State Legislature is considering a bill that would eliminate the sales tax on textbooks.
Rep. Duane Bourdeaux, D-Salt Lake City, said that he is proposing House Bill 273 to help ease the heavy financial burden on college students.
“With the cost overall of books and housing and all the things that students have to pay for, is the market becoming too expensive where we’re going to outprice the students from being able to afford to get a higher education? I thought, well, maybe we should take the taxes off the college textbooks,” Bourdeaux said.
The House Revenue and Taxation Committee approved HB 273 by a 6-to-4 vote at a Feb. 22 meeting.
Bourdeaux said that some lawmakers were concerned about his bill’s financial impact. The official fiscal estimate for the bill indicates that about $4 million in revenue from sales taxes on textbooks would be lost. However, Bourdeaux said that other student purchases would make the net fiscal impact negligible.
“Anytime you lose dollars, that’s an issue, but to be very frank, this revenue from students is going to go back into the system,” Bourdeaux said. “There’s lots of other things they’re purchasing, like clothes and gas, so they’re contributing elsewhere. This is giving them a little more money in their pockets, but it’s going to be put back into our system.”
Pam Hendrickson, chairwomen of the Utah State Tax Commission, expressed concern that the bill did not limit the sales tax exemption to campus bookstores.
“We think that’s very broad and very difficult for us to monitor. We’ve made some suggestions, and we would like to work with the sponsor to narrow it down to university bookstores,” Hendrickson said.
Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Salt Lake City, who voted in favor of the legislation, suggested that Bourdeaux amend the bill before it comes to a vote on the House floor to limit it to university bookstores.
Rep. Joseph Murray, R-Logan, expressed concern that eliminating the sales tax on textbooks might have a negative financial impact on universities. Other lawmakers assured him that those revenues do not go directly to higher education.
“The sales tax that’s removed on the textbooks would go to the general fund, so there’s not a direct result of lost revenue for the universities. It’s the income tax that goes for higher education,” said Rep. Tim Cosgrove, D-Murray.
Many students were enthusiastic about the idea of removing the sales tax on their textbook purchases.
“That would help students a lot. It’s expensive enough as it is,” said Ethan Martin, a senior in English.
“I would really like that. It would save me money,” said Manith Hang, a senior in political science.
However, with only one week left in this legislative session, it remains to be seen whether the bill will come to a vote before both houses of the Legislature. If lawmakers do not get to it before the session is over, the legislation will fail.
“I hope this happens, I think college students need all the breaks they can get,” Bourdeaux said.