Rome City Commissioners want state lawmakers to back a tax on Internet sales — a national initiative supported by the Georgia Municipal Association.
The city’s sales tax revenue is falling about 1.5 percent below its 2007 collections, Mayor Wright Bagby Jr. said, and 2007 collections were 2.5 percent less than in 2006.
“Some of it’s the economy. But I don’t think there’s any question state and local governments are losing money to Internet sales,” he said.
The board met Tuesday with members of the local delegation to discuss trends and priorities for the upcoming Georgia General Assembly session. Attending were state Sen. Preston Smith, R-Rome, and state Reps. Barbara Massey Reece, D-Menlo, and Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville.
At least 20 states already are working under a Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement to prepare for easy e-commerce collections, Commissioner Buzz Wachsteter said.
He argued that failing to collect the tax is unfair to local merchants who must charge their customers, but Loudermilk said security concerns and shipping charges are slowing the shift to online buys.
Smith also expressed skepticism.
“Realistically, this is a global market, … and there’s no way to enforce (a tax collection) absent an international treaty,” he said.
Local legislators were more supportive of the city’s push to let local governments collect their own sales tax instead of having retailers funnel it through the state.
Bagby said Rome, Floyd County and Tax Commissioner Kevin Payne are volunteering to be a test site for the system used successfully in Alabama.
“It’s not just that we’d get the money quicker,” he said. “The bigger issue is information. We could make better decisions if we knew things like the economic impact of special events, but we can’t get that data from the state.”
Bennett provided a prime example of the problem with the local option sales tax and special purpose, local option sales tax. Although both the LOST and SPLOST are 1-cent collections, payouts from the state differ widely for each during the same month, he said.
“I’m always in favor of local control, and I think this could be good,” Loudermilk said following an extended discussion. “It’s worth looking at.”
Other issues topping the board’s priority list — transportation funding and the statewide water plan — will likely be addressed during the session, Smith said.
“But most of the policy issues this year will be driven by budget issues, by what the budget allows us to do,” he cautioned.
All three legislators said they expect the General Assembly to release property tax homestead credit rebates to local governments that were frozen this fall, although the credit could disappear in future years.
The reimbursement means about $4.6 million to Rome and Floyd County governments and schools.
Click here to see more about pending e-commerce tax proposals.
Click here to see more about the homestead property tax credit.
