Students usually dread buying textbooks for a new semester, but some of that anxiety may be lifted if a new bill on higher education textbooks passes.
California State Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-San Bernardino) has recently proposed a bill that would exempt students from paying a California sales tax on their textbooks. According to Donnelly, the bill is awaiting review from one of the state committees, and if passed, it will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2014.
“There’s a whole lot of activity going on in the education sector,” Donnelly said. “We propose something where we align the interest of the student with a policy that gives them the benefit and essentially becomes an investment to make it possible for them to actually get the resources they need to complete their education.”
The purpose of the bill, Donnelly said, is to provide students with direct relief that would affect students’ finances immediately after it passes. The bill states that it would exempt only textbooks for institutions of higher education.
“[Students] will have more money in their pockets and actually get textbooks cheap so that they can do well in their classes and succeed,” he said. “Their success will become the success of the State of California.”
Cal State Long Beach junior criminal justice major Antoine Hill said she supports the bill and feels it would help students in the long run.
“[The bill] is a great idea because textbooks are already overpriced, and they are for our education, so it would benefit every student if sales tax was taken away,” he said.
Sophomore pre-social work major Rebeca Reyes said she also liked the idea that the bill proposes because it would provide students with extra money.
“[The bill] would be good because it is ridiculous how much we pay for books, especially some that we don’t even use,” Reyes said.
However, although students say this bill would make a significant difference in their finances, CSULB economics professor Steven Yamarik said he doesn’t believe the bill will have a big impact.
“Most students buy textbooks from cheaper online sources that do not charge sales tax, and sales tax is already such a small portion of the price of textbooks,” Yamarik said. “[The bill] is not going to do much.”
Donnelly said that the bill aims to provide immediate relief to students when it comes to textbooks so that they will have money to spend on other necessities, such as parking passes or lunches on campus.
“The idea is to do something that will literally impact [students’] pocket books now,” Donnelly said.
