I told you people Joe Straus was bad news. Under his leadership, the Texas House has decided to impose taxes on internet purchases via H.B. 2403. Conservatives in the State House supported it, arguing that it really didn’t change anything in the law, but internet companies and tax advocates are raising all sorts of red flags that Texans are about to get screwed.The legislation is before the State Senate right now. Basically, the legislature is considering getting rid of the “physical nexus” standard for tax collection. In effect, a retailer couldn’t be required to collect sales taxes in Texas unless it had a physical connection to the state. Using political parlance, this law “clarifies existing law”. Yeah, right.Texas will “clarify” the physical nexus rule in such a way that if the online retailer happens to advertise in the state or take other steps to make Texans aware of their existence, it’ll be good enough to require tax collections.Of course, this just means Texas will kill the advertising industry among other things.Texas has already seen the state kill jobs with stupid stuff like this. Amazon.com had a huge distribution and warehouse facility in Texas and packed up and left the state thanks to the State Comptroller’s decision to start forcing Amazon to collect sales taxes. Major jobs were lost.Under Joe Straus and Lt. Governor DewCrist Dewhurst, it appears Texas will be open for business, just not in the tech sector Texas claims to want.Oh yeah, and for those of you keeping score at home, where did Joe Straus and DewCrist get this idea?California.