Taxing the Internet in Colorado

I advertise my driving business in many areas. I spend alot of $ each month advertising.
Our Colorado Legislature just put into effect HB-1193 which imposes sales tax on online retailers.
No other state has these rules.
Now I can no longer advertise with Amazon because they refuse to participate in Colorado's plan.
Here is the mailing I just got from Amazon.
Ron
Thanks alot to our Tax crazed Governor Ritter and Democrat assembly

Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate:

We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to "voluntarily" collect Colorado sales tax -- a course we won't take.

We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.

There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.

You may express your views of Colorado's new law to members of the General Assembly  and to Governor Ritter, who signed the bill.

Your Associates account has been closed as of March 8, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for customers you refer to Amazon.com after that date. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to March 8, 2010, will be processed and paid in accordance with our regular payment schedule. Based on your account closure date of March 8, any final payments will be paid by May 31, 2010.

We have enjoyed working with you and other Colorado-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.


Best Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

TABOR

Background

    Nestled at the foot of Pikes Peak on the western flank of the Great Plains, Colorado Springs is one of the  prettiest cities in the United States. The poem and song America The Beautiful immortalizes our vistas.

    But, like most of our country, we lie under a heavy burden of fools and incompetents in government whose answer to every problem, real or imagined, is more taxes.

    Formerly, any collection of dimwits in city, county, or state government could raise taxes at their whim. But one crusty curmudgeon (yes, there is more than one here) took exception and in 1992, after several tries, managed to amend Section X of the Colorado Constitution by means of a voter referendum. That amendment, known as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, requires any governing body in the state that wants to raise taxes to submit the question to the citizens within their jurisdiction for a vote up or down.

     Voluntary tax increases are not nearly as popular with citizens as politicians would like. Since TABOR passed they have been trying every slimy dodge imaginable to wriggle around this constraint. The current depression has renewed their vainglorious efforts.

       In 2008 a local county commissioner (an attorney of course) threatened to sell the county parks if citizens rejected his proposed tax and spend increase that was, in his mind, absolutely essential for "public safety." Predictably, citizens didn't take kindly to the threat and the tax increase failed by a wide margin and he is looking for another government job next year. Turned out the parks did not need to be sold and crime rates remain among the lowest in the nation.

      Another popular dodge is for politicians to pass a tax and call it a fee. A few years back Colorado Springs decided to tax property owners for the rain that fell on them. Knowing such a tax was quite unlikely to receive voter approval they called it a Stormwater Enterprise fee that applied to rain that fell on every impermeable surface on one's property. Well the same curmudgeon that got TABOR passed didn't take kindly to the bungling city government's "fee" for rainwater and petitioned against it, issue 300 in the November 2009 election.

     The current depression has also curtailed tax revenues for the City of Colorado Springs as its citizens incomes dried up and the homeless tents along the creeks multiplied. The answer, of course, as any self-serving politician will tell you, is to once again raise property taxes despite the record number of home foreclosures. And if citizens refuse to bear any burden to support the profligate city government, where an average employee earns around $60,000 a year and the city clerk earns twice that, why it would be necessary to discharge police and firemen and shut down the parks. Sound familiar?

      Again that cantankerous old curmudgeon refused to accept the politicians pleas for "More, more, more, no taxation is ever enough to pay for our mistakes and blunders." And so he petitioned against that tax increase as well, referendum 2C on the November 2009 ballot.

      Now being a fair, impartial, and unbiased government, with a well-educated and informed law enforcement agency, city attorney, and, of course, courts, the obvious step for the city government to take was to have this unspeakably evil curmudgeon and his crony arrested for exercising their Constitutional right to petition for redress at a local Costco. The Keysone Cops episode that followed is described in their own words below and deftly illustrates how dysfunctional our "legal" system has become.

______________________________________________________________________________

How local government scorned the U.S. Bill of Rights

By Doug Stinehagen and Douglas Bruce

Colorado Springs Gazette

Reproduced with permission of the authors

     December 14, 2009, was the 218th anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Our city government recently showed how little it respects the freedoms listed there.

     Charged with a crime August 15, we demanded a speedy trial, but it was delayed until December 4. We paid a ³fee² for our jury trial. We requested 12 jurors, and got six.
      The officer¹s citation first ordered us to court August 8, a week before the alleged crime! It listed Mr. Stinehagen as female. It stated our ³crime² occurred in September, a month later than the day we were charged. The officer meant to charge trespassing, but the citation was for transporting explosives ‹ a felony. Mr. Stinehagen¹s charge was amended two days before trial.
      No Costco employee ever asked us to leave, a legal requirement for trespass. Councilman Herpin later called that glaring omission a ³technicality.² We showed printed police policy bulletins promising no trespass arrests of peaceful petitioners. The officer stated we would not be cited.
      Armed with handgun and Taser, she ordered three times we erase a photo taken. That forced destruction of evidence was so clearly a felony (18-8-610 C.R.S.) she was advised of her right not to testify against herself.
     We signed her citations about 5:30 p.m. and left. After 9 p.m., she pounded on Mr. Bruce¹s door and demanded he return his citation for her to rewrite. He refused. She then tried to coerce his 76-year-old co-defendant in a 10 p.m. phone call. She then altered both tickets, after we had signed them and received copies!
      Our motion that the case be heard by a neutral outside judge was denied. Our judge was a loyal city employee whom the council appointed and could fire any time, and whose salary faced a financial impact if our petition, issue #300, passed.

    Two weeks later, that judge dismissed the tickets over our objections, letting the city re-file with three weeks delay. Police rewrote the tickets, quietly changing Mr. Bruce¹s charge and other items, while pretending to fix only the date.
     City Attorney Patricia Kelly emailed the city council about the new filing and invited them to reply if they wanted the case dropped. Asking politicians whether to prosecute their political foe is grossly unethical. We notified the state bar. The judge covered up that email discussion and council¹s secret and illegal meeting.

     Prosecutors proposed gag orders that we not mention ³freedom of speech,² police bulletins, proof of targeted prosecution, etc. The city had secretly changed its petition policy by demand of Costco¹s Denver lawyer. We were ordered not to show the jury his email naming Mr. Bruce as the target of the change. Their new policy, never passed by the council, erased ³First Amendment² 14 times. It specifically protected burning our American flag, but ended previous tolerance of peaceful petitioners.

      On a sidewalk outside the courthouse, a man handed out informational fliers noting the historic role of juries as buffers against tyranny. No jurors had been chosen for any case. The city-paid judge went ballistic and orally made up a law that no one could ever post signs or pass out leaflets within 100 yards of the courthouse. He made that area a ³constitution-free zone.² Talk about legislating from the bench!  No offering papers to sign on public access property, no distributing papers to read within 100 yards of public property ‹ two insane and illegal city ³rules.³

      The judge asked us in open court, ³When WE finish the prosecution, will you be ready with your witnesses?² That gaffe exposed him as a co-prosecutor, rather than an objective arbiter of justice. When we asked for the tape, he said it was not recorded, claiming an electronic ³glitch.²
      This city-paid judge blocked testimony from about 30 defense witnesses, 25 of whom had petitioned at Costco without arrest, and many documents proving our innocence.

       Jurors were denied the transcript of the star city witness¹s prior sworn testimony showing his many inconsistencies, and his typed statement he signed in August, showing (a third time) he never asked us to leave. We were threatened with contempt of court if we mentioned our evidence.

       Verdict: Not guilty.

       The city¹s bumbling incompetence was so gross they made the Keystone Kops look like the Bolshoi Ballet. The bias was overt. We would call this a kangaroo court proceeding, but kangaroos might sue us for libel.

 ³Doug Stinehagen and Douglas Bruce are patriots who will continue to petition.²

_____________________________________________________________________________

     I am pleased to note that the citizens of Colorado Springs turned down the property tax increase, 2C, proposed by the (what term describes them?) city council. And that issue 300 passed, ending the city's end run around TABOR with fees on rainwater and other malfeasance.

     I'm also confident that most readers will not be shocked to learn that after the 2C tax measure was defeated that certain funds were suddenly discovered to cover the dire shortfalls so alarmingly described before the November election.

     The sad thing, though, is that this case represents a cross-section of what millions of Americans endure every day as they pass through our "justice" system. Arrests are made on false allegations without question, children are forcibly taken on imagined charges based on anonymous phone calls,  it is often impossible to get a jury trial, coercion and even torture of defendants is routine, courtrooms bear a distinct resemblance to Star Chambers, the outcome is often predetermined by the judge's cronies, transcripts are lost or altered due to recording "glitches," and may god have pity on anyone before the bar who can't afford an attorney at $200-$500 hour or more.

       Of course, the obvious solution in the political mind is to raise taxes and fees and pour more money into child protective services, police, jails, judges, police, and social interventions. Encouraging marriage and families is contraindicated in their world and any curmudgeon who dares challenge their eminences must be done away with. And for any Doubting Thomas may I recommend Barbara Johnson's recent book Behind The Black Robes: Failed Justice.

Bah humbug,

One more curmudgeon

                              ___________________________________

New Underground Economy

New Underground Economy

by Richard W. Rahn
The underground or "black" economy is rapidly rising, and the fault is mainly due to government policies.

Here is the evidence. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) released a report last week concluding that 7.7 percent of U.S. households, containing at least 17 million adults, are unbanked (i.e. those who do not have bank accounts), and an "estimated 17.9 percent of U.S. households, roughly 21 million, are underbanked" (i.e., those who rely heavily on nonbank institutions, such as check cashing and money transmitting services). As an economy becomes richer and incomes rise, the normal expectation is that the proportion of the unbanked population falls and does not rise as is now happening in the United States.

Tax revenues are falling far more rapidly at the federal, state and local level than would be expected by the small drop in real gross domestic product (GDP) and changes in tax law that have occurred since the recession began. The currency in circulation outside the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve banks and the vaults of depository institutions - that is, the currency held by individuals and businesses - has grown by 13.3 percent in the last two years, while real nominal (not inflation-adjusted) GDP has not grown at all, and real (inflation-adjusted) GDP incomes have fallen by more than 3 percent. With the growth of electronic means of payment and financial service providers, it would be expected that the currency component of GDP would fall, not rise.

The underground economy refers to both legal activities, such as often found in construction and services industries where taxes are not withheld and paid, and illegal activities, such as drug dealing and prostitution.

Countries such as the United States, Switzerland and Japan historically have had relatively small, nonreporting and/or illegal sectors, a typical estimate being 13 percent of GDP.

Most European countries have had somewhat larger underground sectors (typically 20 percent or so) in part because of the desire to escape higher tax rates. Italy and some of the other Southern European countries are believed to have underground sectors that account for 30 percent or more of all economic activity.

I recall an Italian finance minister telling a few of us at a meeting a couple of decades ago that, for policy purposes, he assumed that "the economy was 40 percent larger than what was reported." In some developing countries and/or highly corrupt countries, underground or "off the books" activities are estimated to be as high as 70 percent of all economic activity.

The FDIC report about the size of the unbanked or underbanked sector in the U.S. should be of concern because those who do not use the banking system often have to pay higher fees to cash checks, pay bills (e.g., money orders, etc.), or transmit funds.

People who keep their savings in cash at home rather than in banks make themselves easier prey for criminals and are more likely to lose their money to fire, flood, or just neglect. Not surprisingly, a majority (71 percent) of the unbanked have household incomes of less than $30,000 per year.

There are many reasons people do not have bank accounts. Banks, because of the "know your customer" and other anti-money laundering regulations, make it difficult for nonestablished people, such as the young and transient, as well as legal and illegal immigrants, to open bank accounts.

Also, many of these same regulations are responsible for the rise in bank fees, which are a particular burden for low-income people. You can be sure that every time Congress passes some new law or the IRS implements some new regulation to "get tax cheats," much of the real burden of these compliance costs will fall on those least able to afford it, while those intent on finding their way around it will do so.

People also avoid having bank accounts because they are vulnerable to asset seizure, judgments, levies, etc. Increasingly, bankers and others who provide financial services are forced by governments to spy and snitch on their own customers, and this is a real turnoff for many people, which causes them to find other ways of maintaining financial privacy.

Many studies have shown that when people believe the taxes they are required to pay are reasonable and the political leaders tend to spend their tax dollars wisely, tax compliance rises, and vice versa. In the United States, there is increased evidence that many tax dollars are not being spent wisely and are often used to pay off political cronies.

Over the past year in particular, the public has become aware that many in Washington who advocate higher taxes and argue that everyone has a responsibility to pay taxes are themselves not complying with the tax laws and regulations.

When you have a secretary of the Treasury and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee (the tax writing committee) accused of cheating on their taxes, it greatly undermines the moral authority of the tax collectors, making the common citizens feel like chumps and, hence, much more willing to try to legally avoid or illegally evade taxes themselves.

The evidence is unambiguous; governments cannot increase tax compliance and decrease the size of the underground economy by ever increasing and more onerous regulations.

It is no accident that those governments that allow their citizens a high degree of personal and financial liberty, including financial privacy, and spend taxpayer dollars wisely, honestly and competently, have much smaller underground sectors than corrupt and oppressive governments. Washington, take note.

National Recovery Act- 1934

This came out of the History column from todays local paper the Gazelle.
"Careful search of National Recovery Act codes reveals little of value
in them to any industry except those monopolistic
privileges which are incompatible with a capitalistic system based on
free enterprise and which ought never to have been granted unless it
were contemplated to make a transition from free competitive capitalism
to state capitalism."
Dr. Charles Roos, former director of research for the national recovery act.
Assailing the Recovery administration, minced no words in an almost
unqualified attack on the code system, Dr. Roos called the NRA "the
greatest hoax ever perpetrated on industry or labor."

Reminds me of todays recovery "stimulus package"

5 best sentences

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read. This is one paragraph that should be in every book in every school room in every city in every state in our great Union ... Our educators should make a lesson plan on this one statement and instill these words in the minds of all students.

"You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation..
You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

TEN FOR '10: WINNING WASHINGTON BY EMPOWERING AMERICANS

From Laura Ingraham TEN FOR '10: WINNING WASHINGTON BY EMPOWERING AMERICANS

1) Taxpayers' Bill of Rights (TABOR). Limit federal spending growth to the percentage in population growth plus the rate of inflation; provide taxpayers the option of filing a post-card sized return using a low, flat tax rate of 15% 2) End Tax-funded abortions. Stop federal payments to Planned Parenthood and prohibit any taxpayer-subsidized health insurance plan from covering abortion 3) Defend American Borders. Complete America's border-protection initiatives using remaining funds from the so-called stimulus bill 4) King Dollar. Preserve a strong dollar so that Americans' savings aren't wiped out by inflation and the U.S. dollar remains the world's reserve currency 5) Empower American Business. Immediately slash corporate tax rates to 15% and scrap the capital-gains tax altogether 6) Defend America. Strengthen America to defend our homeland and fully fund an operational, layered missile-defense system 7) Statism Exit Plan. De-fund czars; immediately cease bailout payments to failed companies; ban future bailouts 8) End Generational Theft. As few believe America's entitlement programs will be able to pay benefits to future generations, provide younger workers the choice of diverting payroll/Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts 9) Restore America's System of Justice. Introduce penalties for frivolous lawsuits, where those who launch unsuccessful lawsuits are liable for the defendants' legal bills 10) American Energy Independence. All-of-the-Above strategy that embraces alternatives, expands and accelerates exploration and production of oil and natural gas, and jumpstarts dramatic increases in nuclear power Backers/Signatories - Tom Price (R-Ga.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee - Michael Williams, Texas Railroad Commissioner & Republican candidate for Senate - Rep. Jep Hensarling (R-Texas), member of the Republican Study Committee - Rick Crawford, Republican congressional candidate, Arkansas first district - Marco Rubio, Florida Republican senatorial candidate

Are you crazy? It is broke!!

The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775 - you have had 234 years to get it right; it is broke.
Social Security was established in 1935 - you have had 74 years to get it right; it is broke.
Fannie Mae was established in 1938 - you have had 71 years to get it right; it is broke.
The "War on Poverty" started in 1964 - you have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor"; it hasn't worked and our entire country is broke.
Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965 - you've had 44 years to get it right; they are broke.
Freddie Mac was established in 1970 - you have had 39 years to get it right; it is broke.
Trillions of dollars were spent in the massive political payoffs called TARP, the "Stimulus", the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009... none show any signs of working, although ACORN appears to have found a new victim: the American taxpayer.
And finally, to set a new record:
"Cash for Clunkers" was established in 2009 and went broke in 2009! It took good dependable cars (that were the best some people could afford) and replaced them with high-priced and less-affordable cars, mostly Japanese. A good percentage of the profits went out of the country. And the American taxpayers take the hit for Congress' generosity in burning three billion more of our dollars on failed experiments.
So with a perfect 100% failure! rate and a record that proves that "services" you shove down our throats are failing faster and faster, you want Americans to believe you can be trusted with a government-run health care system?

20% of our entire economy?

With all due respect,

Are you crazy?

Government entitlements are the problem

I'm a big believer that entitlements are one of the main problems with our economy. Government granted entitlements. Everyone deserves some. A little here a little there till everyone has their hand in the pie. That is why Democracy will fail and we will no longer be a Republic. Medicaid is failing, Social Security is failing, medicare is too. how can we expect the government to operate the biggest entitlement of all, in a nationalized health care plan? More and more entitlements. I can't help but think about perhaps some of my own entitlements. Like a decent road, a close fire station, cops all around, infrastructure, like sewer, water and electricity. Are those Entitlements? I suppose not cause I help pay for them with taxes and I don't have my hand out expecting them for free. What about all the retired and disabled military? They deserve it don't they? I'm thinkin' perhaps the military, active and former are the only ones deserving of entitlements. The rest of you with your hands out expecting the government to fill it with my tax dollars, forget it, go the church pantry.

More new taxes on the poor

More new taxes for the poor. Obamama has now suggested a federal value added tax. This would be on top of all the other taxes we pay. Whether it be your income tax, sales tax, fuel tax or what ever. There's so many different types of taxes already. Do you understand a value added tax? I'll try and splain it in my most simplest way. Let's just say I manufactured widgets. With the federal value added tax here's how it would work. I would buy some screws and get taxed by the supplier for their purchase, then some wood and get taxed for that purchase, Then some stain and be taxed by the supplier again. his goes on and on for all the materials. Each and every part that goes into my widget. This will substantially increase the cost of my product to the consumer. What??? Did you think I was going to absorb all that additional expense? Hell no, I'm going to pass it on to you, the poor assed people who voted for Obamama for the CHANGE

Entitlements, yours and mine

In my opinion it all comes down to entitlements. What are we entitled to as citizens of this fair city? Do you think we're the only ones with these problems? NO! It's all over the country, in every little berg and huge metropolis. Just look at California, the entitlement capital of the country. HA! what a joke, and WE will pick up the tab for their conveniences through more federal taxes on the poor. Fuel, tobacco, alcohol, sugar and even vehicle registrations, all increased taxes on the poor.

So now ask yourself, "what am I entitled too?" and then imagine how an increase in some tax or 'added fee' is going to effect the poor and even many of the middle class. Can you look yourself in the mirror and say "I'm glad they're watering my park and picking up the litter" without thinking of your neighbor, the senior, having trouble paying her property tax or buying fuel for her car.

Quit thinking of yourselves you selfish pigs. Look in the mirror and figure out which entitlements YOU can do without and while your at it go drive your neighbor to the grocery store.

Taxes on the poor

Lets see, first it started with tobacco tax, for the poor
Then a higher federal tax on fuel, for the poor
Their talking about a higher tax on alcohol, for the poor
Oh yeah, don't forget the higher sugar tax, for the poor
A huge increase in vehicle registration, for the poor
Now with the added EPA regulations, increase in the cost of natural gas
and electricity, for the poor
Now don't be an idiot. Do you think these increases hurt the rich?