Quote:
Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
I'm not for collecting the tax. We pay enough taxes already. California made the decision to have some of the highest pensions in the US. They have some of the highest pay in the US for the public sector as well. Turns out their tax base doesn't support that pay (and other services.)
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I can foresee some ideal situation where I would support forcing online retailers to collect sales tax everywhere. It is not this situation. Your point is well taken. States had basically already written off online sales tax revenue and filled the gap from other avenues. Now that those alternative wells have dried up, they're looking to push the limits of the constitution to dig some new wells, with no intent of letting the others recharge.
Governments really should study hydrology. They're pushing for some future droughts far nastier and far longer than what we have now. You can't just tap every source of funds the way Charlie Sheen taps every...well... and expect flows not to peter. When the resource is running low, you gotta do some conservation.
If states weren't fee-ing and taxing and regulating their tax base to death already, a nice sales tax-only solution and aggressive collection thereof has a lot going for it, IMO, at both the state and federal levels. There are ways of dealing with the constitutional issues as a community, but so long as states behave as bullies, neither businesses nor consumers are going to want to engage in the spirit of cooperation necessary to get there.