Conservatively Speaking
State Senator Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) represents parts of four counties: Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, and Walworth. Her Senate District 28 includes New Berlin, Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, Muskego, Waterford, Big Bend and parts of Greenfield, East Troy, and Mukwonago. Senator Lazich has been in the Legislature for more than a decade. She considers herself a tireless crusader for lower taxes, reduced spending and smaller government.
State Budget Watch: Streamlined sales tax=tax increase
By Mary Lazich
Tuesday, May 8 2007, 01:34 PM
Governor Doyle’s proposed state budget is a litany of one tax increase after another. His budget includes adopting the provisions of the streamlined sales and use tax agreement for purposes of administering and collecting state, county, and stadium district sales and use taxes. Implementing the Streamlined Sales Tax would thrust yet another hefty tax increase on Wisconsinites.
Under current federal law, generally, an out-of-state retailer without a physical presence in Wisconsin selling tangible personal property or services to customers in Wisconsin is not required to collect the sales tax or use tax imposed on such sales. Merchants not physically located in Wisconsin can voluntarily agree to collect and remit the tax on their sales to Wisconsin residents. If a seller does not volunteer to collect the sales tax, the state imposes a use tax on purchases from the seller by Wisconsin residents.
It is much better to keep current Wisconsin law on sales and use taxes instead of the Governor’s plan to make it easier to collect sales taxes on mail-order and Internet sales. Maintaining the current law on sales taxes will save Wisconsin millions of dollars.
An ever-growing portion of U.S. retail sales is directly related to e-commerce. According to a June 2003 report prepared by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, “e-commerce, or business processes which shift transactions to the Internet, is growing at a rapid rate. The value of e-commerce transactions, while still small relative to the size of the U.S. economy, continues to show strong growth. More significant than the dollar amount of these transactions, however, are the new business processes e-commerce makes possible and the new business models it is generating. Many new Internet-based companies and traditional producers of goods and services are working to transform their business processes into e-commerce processes in an effort to lower costs, improve customer service, and increase productivity.”
Competition is a positive factor in the business world. Competition breeds productivity, creativity and innovation. Why would we want to discourage growth in e-commerce and stifle a growing economy by implementing a tax increase?
Governor Doyle promised Wisconsin a no-tax increase budget. Every time one looks further into the 1757-page state budget document, one finds even more surprises that would only serve to harm Wisconsin taxpayers and businesses. The Streamlined Sales Tax is a tax increase that needs to be eliminated from the state budget.
