If Ohio's budget shortfalls continue to affect higher education funding, Ohio University students, and other college students across the state, might push for a change in tax law to exempt textbooks.
Katherine Smith, OU Student Senate president, said OU senators would work with the Council of Student Governments, a statewide organization, to lobby in Columbus for the change.
"Right now, we're going to focus on the budget and tuition caps," Smith said. "But (tax-free textbooks) would be a great way to offset rising tuition costs."
States such as New York and Missouri took action to ease textbook costs for students in the economic boom of the late 1990s.
In 1998, then-Missouri Sen. Ted Farnen worked to include textbooks in a larger bill encompassing many new tax exemptions.
Stephen Sugg, former legislative director for a Missouri student lobbying group, said he and other students worked with Farnen throughout the legislative session to get the bill passed intact.
"During that time, it was the economic boom of 1990s and the state of Missouri was going to do tax cuts for everyone from funeral homes to food distributors," he said. "We decided students needed a break as well."
The bill, passed in September 1998, removed the 4.2 percent state sales tax, but no local taxes, from all textbooks purchased by students at on-campus bookstores. The legislature later passed a law to extend the tax exemption to off-campus bookstores, Farnen said.
"Any time you suggest taking the local sales tax off, the cities and counties go crazy," Farnen said.
Ohio Rep. Jimmy Stewart, R-Athens, a former Athens auditor who currently serves on the higher education subcommittee of the House Finance and Appropriations committee, said he would be in favor of removing Ohio's 5 percent state tax on textbook sales but also would be wary of the state removing local taxes.
But Gary Gudmundson, an Ohio Department of Taxation spokesman, said he does not think it would be feasible to remove only a portion of the sales tax in Ohio because of the mechanics of tax collection. The state receives all sales taxes and ships back the local government portion, such as Athens County's 1.25 percent.
Gudmundson said sales tax is a large source of income from the state, bringing in more than $6 billion last year.
With about 325,000 full-time students enrolled at state-supported universities, community colleges and technical schools and another 123,000 attending private colleges, Ohio could miss out on as much as $13 million each year, assuming students spend an average of $600 per year on textbooks.
Farnen said the high college enrollment in Ohio would make the income loss much higher than in Missouri, where only about 137,000 students attend public universities and 52,000 are enrolled in private schools.
"The revenue that would come into (Ohio) at this time would be hard to make up," he said. "They're looking for every nickel."
And some OU students said they would not want the elimination of sales taxes on textbooks to affect the rate of tuition increases.
"I'd rather pay taxes on my books than increase tuition," OU senior Talia Parrotti said.
Stewart also said Ohio's budget problems make tax exemptions unlikely.
He said he plans to ask the Legislative Service Commission, a state organization that gathers information for members of the General Assembly, to research the idea.
Although other states approved tax exemptions in times of economic growth, Smith said Ohio's problems with higher education funding also could sway the legislators in favor of the move.
Ohio students lack the lobbying clout that exists within the Missouri government. Each year, nine students from the four-campus University of Missouri system travel to Jefferson City, the capital, for a lobbying internship, for which they receive college credit, said Mary Anne McCullom, executive director of the Associated Students of the University of Missouri. The students become registered professional lobbyists and spend a semester working for students' interests.
Even if Ohio student government leaders are successful, the battle would not end with the passage of a law, McCullom said.
"There is currently pending a bill that would reinstate the sales tax on a number of items, including textbooks," McCullom said. "(The Missouri legislature) is trying to deal with the double whammy of removing taxes and the economy going sour."
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