7/18/2004 12:40:09 PM|||Nathan Moore|||

Apparently, e-commerce is not going to drain the coffers of sales tax based tax regimes after all.  One of the biggest intellectual supporters of the state income tax in Tennessee, Bill Cox, has backtracked. 
 
The reasons are peculiar, though. The revisions in cost to the state associated with a sales tax regime results from slower than anticipated growth in e-commerce, not admission of an erroneous methodology (which would be preferable).  Details are very much needed.  Inaccurate growth projections in e-commerce could happen to anyone, as e-commerce is a new phenomenon. I'm not quite as quick to condemn the proponents of a state income tax on the basis of Prof. Fox's revisions as Bill Hobbs. It's not as if slow growth in e-commerce is a good thing, and certainly not anything that we as free market capitalists should be hanging our hats on to win an argument.  My response to lost revenue from e-commerce sales is "who cares?".   There are sufficient reasons to oppose a state income tax regardless of this study by Prof. Fox. 

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