Bryan Hansel makes some excellent points regarding the “Internet sales tax,” mostly that the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) is the best solution to the problem, far more fair than Minnesota’s current law.
The MFA levels the playing field for all retailers. But Bryan unfairly singles out not the legislature so much as our two representatives, Tom Bakk in the Senate and Dave Dill in the House. The simple fact is that the bill was passed as part of the tax omnibus bill and had broad bipartisan support; our two reps just added two more votes to the totals. They were not singling out any particular businesses, they were just protecting the state’s interest in collecting taxes due from sales; they leveled the playing field for state retailers.
That Amazon retired all their affiliates in the state was clearly Amazon’s decision; they could have chosen to collect the tax instead and keep people like Bryan in their revenue stream, after all that is what they intend to do anyhow: Amazon supports the MFA, Amazon intends to start collecting the tax and passing it to the state, so why fire a loyal and valuable network of affiliates?
I say write a letter to Bakk and Dill and thank them for both tending to the interests of the state as well as providing the impetus to force the issue to Congress, and then write a letter to Amazon and tell them what a stupid decision they made, and that you refuse to buy through Amazon until they reinstate their local affiliates in Minnesota, especially those in Cook County.
Jerry Hiniker
Grand Marais
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