Massachusetts Legislature State losing revenue online

As state politicians ponder hikes to the sales tax, gas tax or income tax to counter a deepening financial crisis, hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the state are disappearing into cyberspace each year.

[Joe_ north Adams]

what gives on this?
GREED agaiin?

if i purchase something out of state on my computer or out of country thats my business and i shouldn,t pay taxes on it.. I am already paying shipping costs....

I would love to buy the same item local, if they would match the price on the computer i would, i would have it soon and save shipping costs or some of it..

so what i see by this article is this, If the commonwealth reduced its sales tax people would buy more items local than the net. Right?

[Corrigan]

Wrong. It's too insignificant. If you dropped the sales tax 2%, do you really think that will change the buying pattrns? You would save $0.40 on a $20 item. You'd save $2 on a $100 item. That's not going to create a big buying spree, but it would cost the State $200 million in revenue.

[Doc Holliday]

There is plenty of money for the state to give to cities and towns. The problem is those in the statehouse choose to spend it on patronage jobs for their friends or on pensions that give the pensioner more money then when he was woking. The problem is losers like Bosley, Guyer, Pignetelli and Downing who rather rip off the taxpayers than to do the job they are suppose to do.

[Bocks Car]

Corrigan wrote:

Wrong. It's too insignificant. If you dropped the sales tax 2%, do you really think that will change the buying pattrns? You would save $0.40 on a $20 item. You'd save $2 on a $100 item. That's not going to create a big buying spree, but it would cost the State $200 million in revenue.

Ha, glad to see Illinois is NOT the only self-destructing high tax state! Welcome to the club: raise sales taxes and get less revenue as people leave your state, buy online or drive up to the malls in no sales tax New Hampshire!

If you had any common sense, you'd lower your taxes and make your state competitive.

But if you like high sales taxes, I have an idea: the president of Cook County, Illinois is a certain Todd Stroger (yes, Obama is a Stroger endorser/backer so you'll love him). Stroger raised the Cook County sales tax so Chicago is now the highest in the entire country, as high as 13% downtown. Stroger is now deeply unpopular- why don't we send him to Mass and he can be your new US Senator?

The funny thing is the high sales tax hasn't closed the funding gap because people are leaving the county, doing all the purchases in the lower tax suburbs or even in bordering states like Indiana. But by all means, keep your high taxes and pretend people just love paying them. Because they don't, just look at all the tax-cheaters in your party: Sebelius, Rangel, Kirk, Daschle, Geithner, and... Todd Stroger who has an IRS tax lien on his house since he only likes voters to pay tax. He'd be perfect in Boston!