State and Local Taxation
You are the top political advisor to Governor Billy Ray Pickins, (aka “The Kingfish”) the Governor of Florizona, a southern state with a large population of retirees. Florizona is facing a large budget deficit for its fiscal year beginning July 1, 2016 (the 2017 fiscal year) and needs to raise tax receipts. A logical target is to attempt to collect more sales or use taxes. As you know, many Florizona senior citizens, with lots of money, limited mobility, and with all kinds of time on their hands are buying lots of stuff from mail order companies, over the internet and from TV “informercials.” These purchases are not giving rise to tax collections to Florizona. At last night’s poker game, the Governor told you about a conversation he overheard at the national Governor’s conference:
“There was this big fat guy there, Chris Chris or something like that who was blathering about sales taxes—something about an Amazon case in New York and a Direct Marketing case in the 10th Circuit, whatever that is. Anyway, fat guy was saying that these cases were a “roadmap” to collecting more tax. So here’s what I need you to do. Look into these cases and recommend something that gets us lots of money—for the 2017 fiscal year.”
Kindly put together at least two legislative proposals for the Governor. In your analysis, explain what the proposals will accomplish in terms of taxes collected, how the proposal will work, how it can be enforced, and the political consequences the proposals may generate. Your analysis should also, of course, considerer whether the United States Supreme Court will consider the laws constitutional and whether it would be useful to obtain the assistance of the United States Congress and the President of the United States.
An organized well written reply will be appreciated.
Creative thinking will be rewarded.
