School supply tax-free days sought: The Senate-passed bill would widen the tax holiday's scope.
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Apr. 7--OKLAHOMA CITY The Oklahoma Senate passed a measure Monday that would extend the back-to-school sales-tax holiday to school supplies.
House Bill 1297, by Sen. Johnnie Crutchfield, D-Ardmore, and Rep. Pat Ownbey, R-Ardmore, is headed to a conference committee, where its fate is uncertain.
The three-day sales-tax holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. the first Friday in August and ends at midnight the following Sunday. It applies to clothing and footwear valued at less than $100.
Crutchfield said the plan would cost about $7 million. The state expects to have up to $900 million less to spend in fiscal 2010.
The measure will pass "if we figure out a way to pay for it," Crutchfield said.
Crutchfield said small-scale items such as the school-supplies extension have a better chance of becoming law than big items such as eliminating the state sales tax on groceries.
The measure would exclude computers but include calculators, Crutchfield said. He said the measure needs to have a dollar amount limit on items, such as those applied to clothing and footwear. The measure passed 46-1.
In other action, the Senate, by a vote of 37-9, passed a measure that would create a season to hunt black bears.
The measure, by Sen. Jerry Ellis, D-Valliant, and Rep. R.C. Pruett, D-Antlers, goes to Gov. Brad Henry for consideration. It would allow the Wildlife Conservation Commission to decide the season, limits and territory for hunting black bears. The licenses for residents would
be $100, for nonresidents, $500.
A similar measure, Senate Bill 450, by Sen. Kenneth Corn, D-Poteau, is expected to die in the House.
Barbara Hoberock 405-528-2465 barbara.hoberock@tulsaworld.com
Credit: Tulsa World, Okla.
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