By: Wyatt Buchanan The San Francisco Chronicle
September 07 2011 at 06:52 PM
Lawmakers and the online retail giant Amazon have negotiated a new agreement to avoid a referendum and to give the company more time before it has to start collecting sales tax on purchases made in California.
We heard rumors of an agreement in the works late this afternoon, and after scurrying around the Capitol for more information, Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier (Los Angeles County), filled us in on the details.
The plan is to amend AB155, the referendum torpedo measure that failed in the Senate Tuesday, to give Amazon -- along with California retailers -- time to lobby Congress to create a national solution to the online sales tax collection conundrum.
The agreement would give Amazon until July 31, 2012 to get Congress to act. If federal lawmakers do, then the tax collection would begin in January 2013 under whatever structure Congress creates. If nothing happens by next July, however, then California's measure would take effect starting in September 2012.
Calderon just yesterday stood with other lawmakers including Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, in calling Amazon's previous offer to build distribution centers and hire California workers a sham.
But today, he said the deal provides certainty instead of going through the courts or the voters where the outcome is unknown.
"It makes sense to control the outcome," Calderon said, calling the delay a "safe harbor."
The big question is how the state will fill the $200 million hole that the deal would create in the current budget that is supposed to come from sales tax collected from Amazon purchases. No details on that yet.
Perez wouldn't go so far as to call it a "deal" -- "We've got a framework and a pathway," he said -- because bill language still has to be written and signed off on by all the parties. Look for that to happen as soon as tomorrow.
We heard rumors of an agreement in the works late this afternoon, and after scurrying around the Capitol for more information, Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier (Los Angeles County), filled us in on the details.
The plan is to amend AB155, the referendum torpedo measure that failed in the Senate Tuesday, to give Amazon -- along with California retailers -- time to lobby Congress to create a national solution to the online sales tax collection conundrum.
The agreement would give Amazon until July 31, 2012 to get Congress to act. If federal lawmakers do, then the tax collection would begin in January 2013 under whatever structure Congress creates. If nothing happens by next July, however, then California's measure would take effect starting in September 2012.
Calderon just yesterday stood with other lawmakers including Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, in calling Amazon's previous offer to build distribution centers and hire California workers a sham.
But today, he said the deal provides certainty instead of going through the courts or the voters where the outcome is unknown.
"It makes sense to control the outcome," Calderon said, calling the delay a "safe harbor."
The big question is how the state will fill the $200 million hole that the deal would create in the current budget that is supposed to come from sales tax collected from Amazon purchases. No details on that yet.
Perez wouldn't go so far as to call it a "deal" -- "We've got a framework and a pathway," he said -- because bill language still has to be written and signed off on by all the parties. Look for that to happen as soon as tomorrow.
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