The other day, I wrote about the Amazon.com distribution plant in Cayce, and the proposed sales tax exemption (worth 40 million dollars!) that former Governor Sanford promised Amazon.
As I predicted, the people trying to push this idea through would to attempt to slip in the kickback as a proviso during Budget Week (which is this week).
Guess what? The promoters of the Amazon Kickback are doing just that. Gosh, I must be psychic or something.
Sometime this week, Rep. Dan Cooper (R-Anderson), and a few other House Republicans, are planning to slip in a proviso that will put the Amazon Kickback into law, at the urging of Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt and his allies.
The advantage of slipping in the Amazon.com sales tax exemption as a proviso, is that only the most astute lawmaker would notice that such a thing has been done, and the whole maneuver would be executed in the figurative dead of night.
These spending instructions, essentially, are the little brother of the earmark—tacked on to a bill at the last minute, unrelated to the bill being debated, wasteful, and—most importantly—anathema to the conservative’s rallying cry of transparency and accountability.
Given that Nikki Haley campaigned on “transparency” and “accountability,” she has the power to back her words up with actions, by putting the kibosh on this backroom deal that’d cost the state millions.
This story is breaking, and I will update as I get more information, but remember, you heard it here first!\
UPDATE
The keyboard monkeys over at Stuffed Suits sent over a notice that, thanks to them spreading the word , they “got [my] information to the right people, and they are slamming the door on it.”
Now, obviously, the pro-Amazon Kickback bunch will probably try to slip it into the budget again. But thanks to the boiler-room crew over at Suits, the word got out that subterfuge was afoot in the Statehouse, and the attempt got called out.
Because the watchdogs barked, South Carolina’s taxpayers were spared from the shady deals which Statehouse critters make in secret.
Again, thanks to the web-monkeys at Stuffed Suits! You guys rock!
Moe Lane
PG DeFreese
Victoria Coates
Daniel Horowitz
Dan Spencer
Amazon kickbacks? Really?
jfpurdue01 (Diary) Saturday, April 30th at 11:02PM EST (link)Let’s think about this. The issue with Amazon is that they don’t want to have to collect state sales tax for SC residents simply because they put a distribution center in SC. They do not have a retail store in SC. Under SC law, the residents must still pay that tax, they just have to report it themselves. So… this isn’t a tax on Amazon. It is a tax on the people of SC, who are already legally obligated to pay the tax. SC just wants to force the people to pay it instead of relying on people to report it themselves. So… Amazon was going to bring 1200+ jobs to Cayce, SC. Two other companies have already said that they were planning to join Amazon with 1000+ jobs, but now they are not coming either. The West Metro Chamber of Commerce has put conservative estimates at 4,000 local jobs lost because of the decision not to allow Amazon a 5 year break in collecting those sales taxes. The income that would have been generated for the state from the sales tax is estimated at $2 million. The direct income generated from the income taxes on the employees was estimated at $11 million. So essentially SC lawmakers gave up $11 million because they wanted $13 million and now they get $0. Ridiculous. They just cost the state a lot of money and a lot of jobs… and for what?
I agree that our tax system is insane and needs to be changed. However, this is what we have to work with at the moment. Governors don’t come much more libertarian than Mark Sanford and he approved of the deal to get Amazon. This was a colossal failure by Nikki Haley and the SC legislature. There’s no other way to put it.