I’m glad the Governor signed compromise legislation today to help get some California affiliates back to work and bring thousands of Amazon.com distribution jobs to California. That’s very good news.
Unfortunately, this legislation is by no means a cure-all. It does nothing to solve the long-term problems created by the Legislature’s botched efforts to compel out-of-state retailers to serve as California’s tax collectors.
Absent a federal solution, which is highly unlikely in such a short time frame given all of the competing interests, we’ll be right back in the same mess in a year. The State of California will again be killing California jobs, driving away investment and inviting costly litigation.
Let me be clear: this compromise legislation, while welcome, provides only a short-term delay to a bad law that will never produce the revenues, nor the level-playing field, its proponents imagine.
September 23rd, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Amazon will cut prices/shipping costs and tintulate consumers with marketing temptations few could resist…..
Big box stores provide variety but overhead, huge payroll, regulations etc. leave them vulnerable to continued price competition and puny productivity increases, the achillies of in place service businesses.
Will the state make more tax revenue….the fat lady ain’t warming up in the Green Room!