Politicians Take Credit for Voting Down Internet Sales Tax After Amazon Agrees to Collect it Anyway

I just can't stand all the lies, spin and deception coming out of Little Rock these days. Now we see people cheering that a legislative committee killed the bill to tax internet sales. It was voted down on a b-partisan basis. The reality: They only did it AFTER the giant online retailer Amazon agreed to start collecting the tax on us anyway. In other words, the state gets to take more of our money without the politicians having to accept any responsibility for a vote to implement those collections.

Under the threat of the state forcing them to collect the tax, Amazon agreed to collect the tax "voluntarily". Amazon announced that on Friday. The following Tuesday a bi-partisan legislative committee voted down the bill (SB 140, Senator Jake Files (R), Fort Smith) to tax internet sales in Arkansas. I wonder what kind of deal was made with Amazon to get them to do this without the politicians having to take the heat for it? Look for taxpayer money to be shoveled Amazon's way for agreeing to do this "voluntarily". Regardless, we should be very reluctant to pass out any credit for voting against increased taxes collections when they knew that those collections were going to be increased anyway.