- The triumph of politics over principles
Why do politicians say one thing then do the opposite? On Senator Enzi’s (R-Wyo) website it says:
I support pro-growth economic plans that provide welcome relief to taxpayers in every tax bracket, including small business owners, married filers and individuals who have capital gains or dividend income…. By reducing the federal tax burden on individuals and businesses, Wyoming citizens and employers will have more money to spend and invest and create jobs. Americans, not the federal government, know best how to spend their hard earned money.
If Senator Enzi really wanted to provide relief to taxpaying small business owners, the last thing he would do is increase their costs by forcing them to be tax collectors. If Senator Enzi really believed “Americans, not the federal government, know best how to spend their hard earned money,” instead of sponsoring legislation to collect more taxes from Wyoming citizens, he would leave money in the pockets of those who know “best how to spend their hard earned money.”
In November 2011, Sen. Enzi introduced The Marketplace Fairness Act, to allow states to collect sales taxes from out-of-state Internet retailers.
At the moment, a company without a presence in the state does not have to collect state sales taxes from people it sells to in the state. Most people don’t know it but if they pay for something over the Internet, they are supposed to send a check to the state government for the sales tax they owe. Few people bother.
If Sen. Enzi’s bill passes, he would be punishing small business owners on Main Streets in Wyoming who might want to innovate by using the Internet as a sales channel to reach out-of-state customers. Not only that, he would force families to fork over more of their hard earned cash to state governments. His actions belie his words.
But why would Sen. Enzi act in direct contradiction to his stated principles? Probably because, among other things, governments everywhere suffer from a severe spending disease. Instead of looking for a cure, politicians look high and low for new sources of revenue to feed their insatiable hunger for other people’s money.
Of course, politicians don’t explain it that way. The rationale we hear most often for the Internet sales tax grab is that government must level the playing field between Main Street retailers and Internet retailers. But why drag innovative retailers down into the high tax and regulatory regime now hurting Main Street? Why not free Main Street from onerous taxes and regulations so they too have the resources to innovate and create jobs?
Well, that’s because Main Street supports taxing Internet retail sales. Worse still, big online retailers like Amazon have jumped on board the high-tax bandwagon. Why? Because Amazon is planning same-day delivery and that means they will need to set up a physical presence in almost every state — and that means Amazon will be forced by current law to collect state sales taxes.
Voila! Amazon supports the Main Street Fairness Act.
Special interests use the political process to shut out competition and that’s bad for business owners and the pocketbooks of hard working Americans. Put that together with governments suffering from a spending disease, and in their search for ever more revenue, we end up with a job-destroying tax grab. Higher taxes create low-growth, not pro-growth economies. It is a good idea to eliminate the advantage online retailers have, but by eliminating the disadvantage Main Street retailers have, not by grasping for more cash to feed the beast.
this is what is wrong with wyoming, our officials loves that free money and with money comes strings. we having a welfare state of mind in casper too.
Yes Judy, you are right. It is time for a thorough house (not to mention senate) cleaning !
Hi Maureen,
My name is Dan Head and I am Senator Mike Enzi’s Press Secretary. The Senator was disappointed in this column and feels it has some inaccuracies that need to be addressed.
Most Main Street retailers in Wyoming and across the country support the Marketplace Fairness Act because it levels the playing field between Main Street and online/catalog businesses. Sen. Enzi opposes government policies that favor some businesses over other businesses and some taxpayers over other taxpayers.
He also believes in state and local government rights. As a former mayor and state legislator, he strongly believes that states should have the authority to collect or not to collect sales tax without having to get a thumbs up from Washington. The Marketplace Fairness Act does not force states to collect sales taxes from online purchases, it merely provides them with the option if they choose to do so.
As you know, the federal government is broke. State and local governments are being hit in every way. State leaders may soon increase other taxes- such as income or property- to offset the growing loss of sales tax revenue from online sales. The Marketplace Fairness Act could help prevent this. Sales tax in Wyoming pays for the roads we drive on, the schools our children go to, and the law enforcement that protects us.
Senator Enzi’s bill addresses concerns about burdening small businesses. The bill exempts businesses with less than $500,000 in gross annual remote sales from collection requirements. For example, a small business making $750,000 through its brick and mortar store and $499,999 from online sales would be exempt from the collecting requirement because it has not crossed the $500k threshold. In addition, the Marketplace Fairness Act would require states to provide out-of-state businesses with the software and services to calculate and remit the sales tax.
If you have any questions about this or any other topics, I encourage you to contact me at your convenience.
Thanks,
Daniel Patrick Head
Press Secretary
U.S. Senator Mike Enzi
202-224-3424
Please inform Senator Enzi that I for one, am more than a little disappointed in him. Infact, I am working hard to get him sent home this election cycle. Any bill labeled a “fairness” act is suspect to start with. Name the bill for what it is. Internet Sales Tax Act. If you feel it is governments role to level playing fields in an open market, you are wrong. Just the cost of regulating this law over the years will be a load on every tax paying private citizen.
With all due respect,
Paul Worden
Buffalo, Wy
Daniel, I’d like to ask you a few questions you may never even have contemplated before:
Who owns your life? Who owns what you have in your bank account, the home you live in, etc.? You? Or the government (at any level)? If you earned them, paid for them and maintain them, don’t they belong to you? If someone comes and holds a gun to your head and demands “a share,” you’d call them thieves and worse, wouldn’t you? So… what is the difference between a “tax” and a home invasion thief?
If government can take your life or property away from you, and you can’t defend yourself against that theft… doesn’t that mean that you never actually owned any of it? Control = ownership.
By what rational authority do “government” agencies, programs and legislative bodies consume the lives, property and productivity of the people? By what logic does this consumption go on – in ever increasing amounts – even when the productivity of the people and their property is being destroyed and devalued? Why does government grow and consume ever more of their productivity when people can barely feed their families? They don’t want government to feed them, they just want to be left alone and not robbed any longer!
Why would you wish to increase the theft FROM the people – for any reason or in any amount?
We can build the roads, defend ourselves and do anything else we find necessary without coercion, theft and an ever growing body of parasites. People must realize that they don’t need to have some “government” hold a gun to their heads, and that self ownership and responsibility are the only rational alternative.
As a Wyoming businessman who competes everyday with online retailers who have the distict advantage of not having to pay our state sales tax, I applaud Senator Enzi’s Bill. I think it would suprise many here in our state of how much of our spending dollars leave our state in the form of internet purchasing. We tax our own mainstreet business of our state but allow the out of state pirates to pick our pockets without the compensation we demand from our in state businesses. It’s about time that we level the playing field. Equality is what this bill is about. I’m not a big tax supporter. I’d much rather get rid of the state sales tax all together. That would serve the same purpose of gaining our equality in the market. The old saying goes, “If your going to tax, it better be a tax on all and not just a select few”. If your readers want to know where I stand on this position, they can review the bill I co-sponsored last year as we got a rebate for those businesses that collect our state sales tax for us. It’s not much but it’s a start.
Wyoming State Senator
Ray Peterson
Thank you Senator Peterson for your comment. We agree, getting rid of the state sales tax is the way to go. The worst option is to burden innovative retailers with the same taxes and regulations dragging down Main Street.