April 29, 2011: Four Decades of Magic

[Werner Weiss]

Four Decades of Magic: Celebrating the First Forty Years of Walt Disney World is a new book with 28 essays written by bloggers, website authors, and podcasters who have demonstrated a passion for Walt Disney World and its history.

Link to Book Review: Four Decades of Magic.

Please discuss it here.

[Disneykin Kid]

Amazon debacle - Sigh. Do lawmakers even have a clue about how companies think?

[StevenW]

I have no sympathy for both Illinois or Amazon. This is a failure of common sense. Illinois is a blue state, whose residents expects government to do the residents' will of more government services. Government services require high taxes. Businesses in Illinois is expected to pay their fair share. Amazon is an internet company, but since it has affliates, they are regarded as a business in Illinois. They passed a law to avoid a loophole that exempted Amazon. Now, everyone is treated equally under the law. So Amazon fired its Illinois affiliates so it is back to being an internet company with no ties to Illinois.

What should be done is lower taxes for every Illinois company so they can better compete with Amazon.

Let's also address Amazon's political persuasion. "Amazon gave $88,500 to federal candidates in the 2006 election through its political action committee - 54% to Democrats and 46% to Republicans."

Democrats are more likely to want to increase taxes.

[Mousecat]

Thank you for the fine write up for the book.

Sam
SamLand's Disney Adventures

[Werner Weiss]

I have no sympathy for both Illinois or Amazon. This is a failure of common sense.

I really don't want to get into partisan politics here. In my article, I noted that the "Amazon Tax" bill had strong bipartisan support. Almost every state legislator on both sides of the aisle voted Yes.

I think most people, regardless of where they are on the American political spectrum, would agree that businesses should compete on a level playing field. There was not a level playing field before the Illinois "Amazon Tax" bill became law, and there is still not a level playing field now.

Amazon has a big advantage in almost every state of the United States. When Barbara's Bookstore in Illinois sells books to Illinois residents (whether online or in their stores), they have to collect the sales tax, effectively making their prices higher than Amazon's prices, even when the product price is identical. So Barbara's Bookstore is penalized for employing people in Illinois and paying business tax and property tax in Illinois.

The same issue is likely to come up in many other states. States will try, in one way or another, to collect sales tax on online purchases from out-of-state companies.

In Illinois, we're supposed to pay a "use tax" on purchases we make from e-retailers that don't collect Illinois sales tax (either using an income-based formula or based on actual purchases). It's on our state income tax form. Yes, I paid it, but apparently most Illinois residents don't pay it.

There is not a simple solution. At least there's not one at the state level. In the long run, we'll probably have a Federal sales tax, with distribution back to the states. This is not the right place to debate the pros and cons of such an approach.

[Timekeeper]

I liked the review on the essays. But I am sad that your amazon store is gone.


Timekeeper

[yoyoflamingo]

Almost the same view of the book I had. There were times when I had to read a sentence 2 or 3 times to figure out the meaning because of the errors.

Still, it's great to see some essays on some of the more beloved or less written about topics about Walt Disney World.

All in all though, a great read that I would recommend as well.

[KENfromOC]

When will the greedy states and unions learn? While I am sad for Yesterland I am glad Amazon stuck it to Illinois. Maybe other states will learn! (Certainly note the ones controlled by Democrats as is the case here in California. They are so stupid they will most likely to the same thing!

[Werner Weiss]

Again, I don't think this is the right place to push or debate partisan politics.

In the interest of accuracy, allow me to point out that Illinois HB3659 (95th General Assembly) was promoted by brick-and-mortar retailers (such as Sears and Walmart) claiming it was a matter of "fairness." Labor unions did not appear to be involved; presumably they're more interested in other issues.

The bill had only 5 No votes in the Illinois State Senate and only 1 No vote in the Illinois State Assembly. In other words, both parties voted Yes.

For a while it was unclear if Governor Quinn (who is Democrat) would sign the bill, veto it, or let it become law without his signature. After a couple of months, he finally signed it. Thus, he has been the target of much of the criticism of the bill.

I agree that it's unfair that Amazon and similar companies can thrive by avoiding sales taxes that other retailers have to collect. Any established business that wants to sell on the Internet has a competitive disadvantage in any state in which they have a physical presence.

One way around that would be to allow companies like Sears, Walmart, and Barnes & Noble to set up wholly owned subsidiaries that would operate under the same rules as Amazon. They would only collect sales taxes in states where the wholly owned subsidiary part company has a facility such as a fulfillment center, rather than having to a competitive disadvantage in every state where they have any retail stores.

But that still raises the question of whether it's fair that any online retailers should be exempt from collecting their share of sales tax.

If anyone wants to read a good analysis of the bill and the issues, I would recommend the the following piece by Janet Novack at Forbes:

Illinois Governor Signs Amazon Internet Sales Tax Law - Janet Novack - Taxing Matters - Forbes