Students Seek to Exempt Textbooks From Sales Tax

The idea may be more appealing to college students than spring break in Mexico: No taxes on textbooks.

Orange Coast College student Ryan Simpkins heard about the concept from the dean of students at the community college. “It got my mind spinning,” he said.

Toby Sexton had never heard of the idea until he went to a leadership conference last year at Texas A&M.; He liked it so much he made it a plank in his campaign for Cal State Long Beach student body president.

When Simpkins called Sexton late last summer to enlist his support, he found he was talking to the converted. A campaign was born. “I was ecstatic,” Simpkins said. “It meant we had all these extra people working on it.”

Since then, the two college students have followed a methodical strategy, forged a coalition with other schools, lobbied for faculty support and have talked to members of the Legislature. Their efforts took a major step forward when state Assembly members Ken Maddox (R-Garden Grove) and Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego) said they will introduce bills based on the recommendations of Simpkins and Sexton.

“I’m trying to liberate learning from the impediment of taxes,” said Maddox, a graduate student in management at National University in Costa Mesa.

Several states have passed similar bills, Simpkins and Sexton said, including New York, Oklahoma and Virginia, while failing in Texas, Connecticut and Illinois.

A 1998 study by the California Department of Equalization found the state earned $34.5 million from taxes on textbooks out of total sales tax revenues of more than $28 billion.

At 0.12%, it is a figure so low that a lobbyist told Simpkins it was “budget dust.”

Even with support from Maddox and Ducheny, who is chairwoman of the Assembly Budget Committee, there is no guarantee the bill will pass. A similar law died in an Assembly committee last year. Still, Simpkins and Sexton remain confident that the election of Gov. Gray Davis has spawned a more sympathetic atmosphere for education.

A sales tax exemption for textbooks would seem to have a ready-made constituency, considering that there are more than 2 million students in colleges across the state. Books can be a substantial chunk of the cost of education. While full-time tuition at a community college costs about $150, books add another $300, said Jeffrey Dimsdale, Orange Coast’s dean of students.

Simpkins, 22, and Sexton, 24, say that they do not want to get involved in politics. But Sexton carries a two-inch thick notebook titled Sales Tax Exemptions for Textbooks.

The proposal would apply to texts sold on campus and by other businesses whose main purpose is to sell the books to college students. To gain the tax break, a student would be required to present a college ID.

To head off opposition, the proposal asks the state to come up with about $11 million that Simpkins and Sexton say counties stand to lose in sales tax revenue. Lenny Goldberg, executive director of the California Tax Reform Assn., said the students should offer a real substitute to make up for that county money, instead of taking it from the state’s general fund.

Dave Holcomb, director of student auxiliary services at Orange Coast and president-elect of the National Assn. of College Stores, said the bill also would help them compete with Internet booksellers, who do not pay sales tax.

Simpkins and Sexton have brought in student leaders from UCLA and USC, giving them representation from all segments of higher education.

They have also received the support of the California Assn. of College Stores and the state community college’s Academic Senate.

“Once they introduce the bill, the students aren’t going to go away,” Simpkins said.