Published April 28, 2011

The only conclusions we can make from the ridiculous 71-47 vote in the state House rejecting the sales tax exemption for Amazon are either 71 of our representatives are out of touch with reality or they don’t care about the unemployed in the Midlands.

It is preposterous to think that denying this exemption is going to have any impact on the mom-and-pop stores, as opponents of the exemption say, because those stores do have to collect sales tax. All Amazon will do is move the distribution center to a state that will keep its word and continue its current practice of NOT collecting S.C. sales taxes.

So any business that says an Amazon distribution center in Lexington County will force it to shutter its doors should go ahead and turn out its lights, because the vote taken Wednesday does not level the playing field.

The only thing this does is deny 1,249 people full-time employment and an additional 2,500 part-time employment. At a time when South Carolina has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, keeping people out of work has a greater impact on our state than does the loss of the sales tax. The state will continue to pay them unemployment benefits, and it will not collect income tax on the company’s $60 million payroll. Plus it will keep the people out of the local mom-and-pop stores where they would have spent their earnings.

The only way to ensure companies like Amazon collect state sales taxes is to make collection a federal law so they can’t play one state against another. But the likelihood of that happening is far in the future.

The action the House took Wednesday is inexcusable and unacceptable to us, and it should be unacceptable to all South Carolinians. This will have far-reaching effects on economic development in the state.

The good news is there is still time to correct this egregious error and pass a bill allowing Amazon a five-year exemption from collecting sales taxes on items sold to S.C. residents. However, there doesn’t appear to be any political will to do so, even from House Speaker Bobby Harrell, who sponsored the bill.

Not passing this legislation will give South Carolina yet another black eye.