State Senator Jake Knotts of Lexington County, South Carolina, is angry. Recently a school district in his county gave the contract to build a new school to a big Chinese general contractor that had the low bid. Senator Knotts shares the outrage of many of his constituents. While a local…
Amazon not giving up
The Amazon.com lobbyists must be busy working the phones to our state legislators and emailing them copies of the story in Saturday’s State. “Amazon vote drives off two firms”, screams the headline. The story goes on to quote Lexington County leaders who have been at the fore front in pushing…
House stands with state’s small businesses
Congratulations to the South Carolina House! Yesterday after nearly two hours of hot debate, Representatives voted not to give Amazon.com an exemption from collecting sales tax on in-state purchases. The vote turned out not to be even close. A clear bi-partisan majority in the House established a new principle for…
Amazon will build in Lexington Co. without tax deal or we’ll see them in court
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…
Amazon.com wins round 1
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…