Gov. Rick Perry has vetoed legislation that was aimed at tightening the state’s rules on when online retailers must collect sales taxes on Texas transactions, the bill’s author said this morning.
Perry had earlier criticized Comptroller Susan Combs for moving to collect $269 million from Amazon.com for uncollected sales taxes.
State Rep. John Otto, R-Dayton, said Perry’s office told him the governor had vetoed the measure, House Bill 2403, but did not tell him why.
[…]
Otto stressed that his bill did not call for creating a new tax, but rather intended “to put into statute the current rules and practices of the comptroller,” Otto said. “The bill simply defines physical presence, well within the Quill supreme court decision.”
The bill was good public policy that would raise a little bit of much-needed revenue while making the playing field more level for ordinary retailers. Vetoing the legislation was mostly a bit of leftover spite from Perry’s tete-a-tete with Combs. What did you think would happen? The Trib has more.