FC: California Democrats oppose bill to abolish e-commerce taxes

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Seems to me that a confrontational hearing is an occupational hazard when 
you agree to speak before a legislature. Besides, if someone from Americans 
for Tax Reform were testifying in court about tax hikes, a judge would be 
forced to declare him a hostile witness. :) --Declan]

*********

> From: "Ronald Nehring" <rnehring () atr-dc org>
> To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
> Subject: This wouldn't be legal in court
> Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 00:42:44 -0800
> X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0)
> Importance: Normal
>
> Declan:
> In court, it would have been called witness badgering.  But in the 
> Democrat-contolled California State Senate, it's called a hearing.
>
> Yesterday I testified before the state senate's Revenue and Tax Committee 
> on Sen. Ray Haynes' bill to abolish sales and use taxes for electronic 
> commerce in California.  Senate President Pro Tempore John Burton chaired 
> the first part of the hearing.  That is, he waited for me to speak for 
> about 90 seconds before he began interrupting, shouting statements 
> disguised as questions, and made it clear that he had little interest in 
> hearing from a group of free market advocates on the need for reforming 
> the sales tax system in California. "The Internet is turning millionaires 
> into billionaires!" Burton shouted as his excuse for opposing the Haynes 
> measure.
>
> Sonia Arrison of the Pacific Research Institute also testified, and got 
> the same 90-second grace period before Burton began interrupting and 
> shouting at HER, this time from his regular seat.  For those of you who do 
> not know, Burton is a former Congressman who reportedly was forced to 
> resign his seat due to a substance abuse "issue," only to clean up his act 
> (if you want to call it that), run for state senate, and become its 
> leading tax and spender.
>
> Although the measure was certain to go nowhere, that did not stop our 
> opponents from showing up for the hearing en masse.  At least nine 
> lobbyists registered to speak against the bill, including representatives 
> from the California League of Cities, and our "brick and mortar" 
> retailers.  Clearly, our opponents are taking this issue very seriously, 
> even in states where we have no shot at moving favorable legislation forward.
>
> The one bright note is that even some of the Democrats on the committee 
> perked up when Sen. Haynes turned to the privacy issue during his closing 
> comments (Burton did not hesitate to interrupt Haynes, a fellow senator, 
> too).  Haynes walked the Committee through the Trusted Third Party scheme, 
> grabbing even Burton's attention with the prospect of a government 
> database containing information on all of your purchases.  The statist 
> Democrats probably won't be phased by this argument, but the civil 
> libertarians ("we hate the cops" crowd, as described by one) on the Left 
> may be receptive.
>
> -- Ron Nehring, Americans for Tax Reform


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