Re: God I hate politicians...
"Or - the local businesses will now be able to remain competitive and can hire local workers that they had to lay off because they were being beaten by their online competition who wasn't having to collect sales tax, and the local tax revenues will rise because more local people are now employed and all the sales taxes that weren't being collected because of online out of state sales are now being collected."
@JDB: Not now, but at one point all you mentioned would be feasible, but can optimism buy money? Also, if you think about it, couldn't having tax free internet sales actually keep Wal-Mart at bay?
Wal-Mart and their kindred are too deep and too discounted for any real local competition today. This bill will hand them the silver bullet. Don't forget that more money gets sent out of state back to HQ than is ever put back into the local economy. Wal-Mart has the downside of being a terraformer for cash, and sending almost all of it back to the mothership. Also, I think we both know how well paid and treated employees of Wal-Mart are, so that won't be good.
The only things I know to come of this bill are a higher probability you will pay more for the same product, and a higher increase of foreign sales. I have seen many products I would of bought from Japan, China, even England if the shipping wasn't so high, but now with this mandated tax, I have to rethink the shipping charges.
Of course, when the government has more money, they give bigger tax "incentives" to large corporations, start "relocating" the poor, and sell off public land to build yet more condos and shopping centers near me. This bill has just increased the probability of me seeing yet another Wal-Mart, Target, etc., and living through the traffic.