Ohio Bill Would Eliminate Sales Tax On College Textbooks

State lawmakers are looking at a proposal to eliminate sales taxes on college textbooks. Efforts to remove those taxes have not gone anywhere before but the lawmakers sponsoring it hope this time will be different.

Republican Representative Niraj Antani (R-Dayton area) and Democratic Representative Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland area) don’t agree on much politically, but they say college students in Ohio often struggle to pay for textbooks.

“College textbooks are a necessary item," Antani says.

“It adds up substantially," Sweeney says.

So, the representatives have a bill that would make textbooks tax free.

“When you look at the skyrocketing price of textbooks and how much the state is collecting on that, it adds up," Sweeney says.

A cost analysis for a similar billin a previous legislature shows the state collects about $22 million a year in taxes from textbook sales. But Sweeney says, with lawmakers passing bills to get rid of taxes on other items recently, she thinks this bill might have more of a shot now than it has in the past.