It’s not often in a political debate that a key argument of one side gets exposed as a complete fraud. This is one of those rare times. From the beginning of the Amazon.com controversy it was almost universally accepted that giving the company an exemption from collecting sales tax from in-state sales was a bad […]
Amazon will build in Lexington Co. without tax deal or we’ll see them in court Read More »
The Senate Finance Committee room was packed yesterday by Lexington County supporters of Amazon.com’s request to be exempted from collecting sales tax for sales made to South Carolina residents in exchange for building a new distribution center in that county. The room was also filled with lobbyists hired by Amazon.com to move its legislation forward.
Amazon.com wins round 1 Read More »
Last week legislation was introduced in both the South Carolina House and Senate to exempt Amazon.com from collecting sales tax on sales to South Carolina residents from its proposed distribution center in Lexington County. The bills have an uphill fight. My earlier blogs lay out the arguments against the Amazon deal:April 5th–Selling Small Businesses down the
Amazon.com is scared. Scared that if it is forced to follow the laws that apply to every other small business retailer, it can’t compete. Not only here in South Carolina, but across the country. So the business plan of the company is to force states to make exceptions to tax laws. Amazon does this by
Amazon.com’s business plan revealed Read More »
Tea Party saber rattling is making S.C. House Republicans jump ship on supporting legislation (H.3738) creating a health insurance exchange in our state. The Tea Party calls in “Obamacare” because an exchange in each state is part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ideal exchange would be an online, transparent, competitive, consumer-friendly marketplace where
Federal health insurance exchange for SC Read More »
Today the South Carolina House of Representatives begins debating the 2011-12 state budget. One important issue will be how to address Medicaid funding—reduce state funding and thus lose up to hundreds of millions in federal dollars or adopt a plan by the hospitals for them to pay extra into the Medicaid program to avoid the
Medicaid feeds economy Read More »
There appears to be some good news for South Carolina businesses with workers’ compensation insurance. On good authority I have been told that the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI is the state’s workers’ comp rating organization) has filed for a 3.7% overall decrease in a key component of rates called the loss cost. The
Good news for business—well maybe or maybe not Read More »
Small businesses understand the need for any public or private organization to be fiscally prudent and minimize unnecessary expenditures. However, it would be rare for any successful business to artificially limit its spending to something other than monies available. To do so would prohibit the business from establishing long-range objectives for improving customer services or
Start running South Carolina like a business Read More »
The below opinion editorial by SCSBCC president Frank Knapp, Jr. ran in the Augusta Free Press, The Ellis County Press (TX), Manufacturing Digest, NJ Today. —————————————————————————————————- Egypt: A warning for U.S. Democracy By Frank Knapp, Jr. Make no mistake about it – the peaceful Egyptian revolution was brought about by the workers and small business
Egypt: A warning for U.S. democracy Read More »
The Florida judge’s ruling Monday against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is just one more step along the path to a final decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in a few years. Now two Federal Judges have deemed the individual mandate to be unconstitutional and two have not found it to be so. Of note
SC Government and Big Businesses Already Benefiting from “Obamacare” Read More »
