The state Senate voted Thursday to make more online retailers collect sales taxes from California buyers, a move to bring $13.8 million more into the state's battered treasury next year and raise $6.2 million more for local governments.

The bill, which passed 23-15, names no specific online sellers, but targets the Internet's second- largest bookseller, Barnesandnoble.com, and Dell Computer Corp. Neither collect sales taxes on online buys made by Californians. Both firms maintain they have no physical presence in California, a requirement before states can make them collect sales taxes from their residents.

Sen. Dede Alpert, D-Coronado, author of the bill, claimed that New York-based Barnesandnoble.com should collect sales taxes because it is "substantially' the same company as Barnes and Noble, which has numerous stores throughout California.

The bill also targets Texas- based Dell, saying it has agents who represent the company in California. The bill's backers include cities, counties, public employees and smaller California booksellers, who claim it's unfair that they charge sales taxes, ranging from 7.25 percent to 8.5 percent, while one of their biggest online rivals doesn't.

Alpert, noting online buyers' obligation to pay sales taxes, said, "It's not a new tax. It is a better collection of an existing tax.' But most customers, experts say, are unaware of their obligation or ignore it.

Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia are working to simplify their sales tax codes to pave the way for eventual widespread collection of taxes from their residents who buy online.