CCS/HCS/SB 936 - This act allows Macon County and Randolph County, and municipalities located within such counties, to submit, for voter approval, a local sales tax for economic development purposes.

The act clarifies that the term "product which is intended to be sold ultimately for final use or consumption" used in the sales tax exemptions for replacement machinery and new or expanded plant machinery covers tangible personal property or taxable services that are taxable in this state or any other state.

Current law requires that the owner of a motor vehicle, trailer, boat or outboard motor, in order to receive the full credit for sales tax paid, must purchase or contract to purchase a replacement article within ninety days before or after the sale of the original article. This act changes the requirement to the purchase or contract to purchase a subsequent article within one hundred eighty days before or after the sale.

The act also exempts the following items from sales and use tax: all feed for livestock or poultry, regardless of whether the livestock or poultry is to be sold ultimately in processed form or otherwise; replacement parts; materials and equipment used in producing newspapers; electrical energy used in a material recovery processing plant, if its cost exceeds 10% of the total cost of production or if the raw materials contain at least 25% recovered materials; home respiratory equipment, hospital beds and ambulatory aides; certain assistive devices, such as wheelchairs, stairway lifts and braille writers, and sales of scooters, reading machines and other devices if they are purchased by or for persons with one or more physical or mental disabilities to enable them to function more independently (similar to SB 513); sales of over-the-counter or non- prescription drugs to individuals with disabilities; lubricants used exclusively for farm machinery and equipment; electrical energy or gas consumed in the manufacturing of cellular glass products; pesticides, including adjuvants for applying pesticides, or herbicides used in the production of crops, aquaculture, livestock or poultry; dog food purchased by commercial breeders; purchases by a contractor on behalf of an entity located in another state which has a certificate of exemption from that state; tangible personal property used in the research and development of prescription pharmaceuticals for humans or animals; and grain bins used for the storage of grain for resale.

The act also exempts from state sales and use tax all sales of textbooks if purchased at a bookstore located on the premises of an institution of higher learning for use by a currently enrolled student of any postsecondary institution.

The act removes the current sunset of October 1, 2001, from the provision authorizing a tax credit for state sales and use taxes paid on recycled flexible cellulose casing.
RUSS HEMBREE