Political Quotes

“So the question then is whether we should take that affirmative action. I think we should for two basic reasons. One is fairness. It is, in my judgment, intolerable to have an economic system in which government says if you are selling from a distant location, you are at a competitive advantage over persons who are selling on Main Street. That is precisely the current circumstance of requiring one to collect sales tax but not requiring the other to do it, and it is not an insubstantial competitive disadvantage. In my State, depending on which locality one is in, it could be a 6-, 7-, or more percent differential. Second, the practical effect of this is going to be to erode the capacity of State and local governments, acting through the democratic process of representative election and decision, as to what services should be provided and how they should be financed to substantially erode that capability. My State happens to be particularly dependent upon sales tax. About 70 percent or more of our general revenue is collected by sales tax. So if there were a significant percentage of that which moved from Main Street to distant seller, it would have an immediate and substantial impact on the capacity of our State to educate its children, to defend our people through police, to protect our people in time of emergency through fire and other emergency response institutions.”