Slashdot has an interesting article on proposals to tax Internet sales. Many states are facing financial crises, and the first reaction of any government body is to start taxing everything and everything.
For example, in South Dakota, now-Gov. Mike Rounds proposed to save the state’s horrendously failing educational system by taxing Internet sales. (Which also proves that spurious logic when it comes to taxes knows no party – Rounds is a Republican.) He claimed that this would raise $39 million that could be used for education. Doing a little math, that would mean that the approximately 700,000 residents of South Dakota would each have to purchase $800 of goods across the Internet for the state to raise enough money. My guess is that $39 million figure was pulled out of the air in an attempt to sound good.
Heaven forbid that states actually trim the fat when it comes to spending when financial crunch time comes. Instead, the cry is always for more and more taxes. Taxes are to governments what heroin is to an addict… they always seem to want more.
