SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 1273

with Senate committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: MAY 8, 1997

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 1273 of 1997, with committee amendments.

      Senate Bill No. 1273, as amended, allows certain charitable and public safety organizations to make sales tax exempt sales at certain shops.

      Currently, certain charitable and public safety organizations are allowed a sales tax exemption for the purchases and sales they make in relation to their public purposes. However, no exemption is allowed for retail sales of tangible personal property made through a shop or store.

      The bill allows the exempt charitable and public safety organizations to make sales tax-exempt sales at stores that meet two limiting requirements: substantially all of the work must be done by volunteers and substantially all of the store's merchandise must have been donated.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS

      The committee amended the bill to insert an inadvertently omitted word.

FISCAL IMPACT

      In a fiscal estimate, the Office of Legislative Services (OLS)notes that with the limitations on the exemption provided by the bill, no substantial revenue loss will result from this bill. It is noted that a substantial part of the sales of volunteer thrift stores selling donated merchandise is the sale of clothing, which is already exempt from the sales and use tax.