Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., has been working on legislation that would let states impose the local tax on Internet sales where the seller is out of state. That's going to hurt e-business, says Patrick Byrne, chairman and CEO of Utah-based Internet retailer Overstock.com. National Journal's Winter Casey sat down with Byrne on Friday, when he was in Washington to discuss education reform. Edited excerpts follow.
NJ: What are your thoughts on Internet taxes?
Byrne: We have been supporting a permanent moratorium on Internet taxes. It doesn't make sense for the states to be taxing the Internet for a number of reasons. First of all there's the Supreme Court decision from 15, 16 years ago, where the Supreme Court said, "Look, it's just unreasonable to expect somebody in the catalog business to know the different taxes in 7,000 jurisdictions."...
Now the argument is being made that it would be possible to overcome that inexpensively -- a couple hundred million dollars, say -- with technology to keep track of the tax rates on every product in 7,000 jurisdictions. They haven't done that, and even if they did I'd say it's not fair because we and other catalogers and Internet companies, we don't put the same load on the local infrastructure that it does to have a retail store there. We don't have employees, we don't have kids in school there and so on and so forth, we are just based in Utah and use UPS and FedEx. We don't put the load on states' budgets that a local brick-and-mortar retailer does. Therefore it is not fair.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce entered the blogosphere on Monday with the debut of ChamberPost -- a blog that will provide a public platform for issues of importance to the group's 3 million members.
Chamber Senior Vice President Tom Collamore said the online offering will "allow us to reach our audience as conventional methods of communication continue to change." The site is intended to be "a place where everyone can freely discuss topics relevant to businesses, and the challenges that face many business owners," the group said.
The blog will feature posts written by Chamber policy and issue experts and the organization's response to articles written by others, much like Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor that appear in the traditional media. "ChamberPost exemplifies our belief in straight talk and respectful engagement," Collamore said in a press release.
How many members of Congress does it take to change a light bulb? Well, more than one, as Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., does not want to claim all the credit for an amendment he added to an appropriations bill that would change the light bulbs throughout hundreds of government buildings.
The amendment to 2008 appropriations bill, H.R. 2829, passed on a voice vote and would prohibit the purchase of light bulbs that are not labeled energy efficient by either Energy Star or the Federal Energy Management Program.
Inglis said high-efficiency bulbs like compact fluorescent light bulbs and halogen bulbs consume 75 percent less electricity than the incandescent bulbs.
The language that passed with a voice vote could have a fairly big impact, as the bill covers the Treasury Department, the judiciary, the District of Columbia, the General Services Administration, Small Business Administration, National Archives and executive office of the president, among others.
Read more about this story in Tuesday's Technology Daily PM Edition.
Blogging has been a professional passion of mine for about five years now.
I've been a persistent advocate for embracing blogs as a journalistic tool within National Journal Group, probably to the point of being a nuisance to some folks, and I've written (or am still writing) blogs about Congress, adoption, Russia, obituaries, and even blogs about blogs. You can't get much more fanatical than that.
So I'm always glad to hear when someone I know decides to embrace the power of the blog -- especially someone in the media. That means I am thrilled to report that Sharon McLoone, who preceded me as the editor of Technology Daily, is now one of us.
As of yesterday, Sharon is the new small-business blogger for washingtonpost.com. "This feature will offer an inside look at small businesses and their challenges and opportunities," she wrote in the opening entry. "I will talk to experts who can help guide small businesses (from start-ups to well-established) navigate today's digital and physical marketplaces."
I'm sure all of you techies who still run small businesses, and those of you who have made it big after starting small, can offer Sharon's small-business readers plenty of valuable insights, so stop by the blog and say hello.
New Media
Online Politics
Tech Policy
