Some bad news… Hawaii’s HB105 has risen from the dead.
Last week, Hawaiian small businesses in the affiliate marketing industry breathed a little easier when the nexus language was removed from the bill by the Senate.
Unfortunately, when the bill went back to the House this week, the nexus language was added back in.
The lobbyists working with the Performance Marketing Association are trying to get more details on what transpired. Additional information will be provided shortly pertaining to the legislators to contact in order to fight this bill.
Amazon has already noted in this public letter (page 6) that they are prepared to terminate all of their relationships with the small businesses in Hawaii that are working with them on a performance basis.
I’m quite certain that there are more companies that will follow in Amazon’s footsteps should this legislation pass.
This session ends on May 7th. It’s extremely important when you’re contacting your representatives to let them know that this is a losing proposition all around. Hawaii will not get the sales tax revenues that they’re expecting because the merchants like Amazon will simply terminate their relationships with marketers in Hawaii. The small businesses performing the marketing will experience a loss of income. Hawaii loses the income tax from those marketers.
Where is the logic in any of that?
Written by Missy Ward. Missy Ward has been in affiliate marketing since 1999. She is the Co-Founder of Affiliate Summit, GeekCast.fm, FeedFront Magazine, itsaWAHMthing.com; the Co-Publisher of Revenews.com and Revenews.org; Founder of joinWOMU.com and AffiliateMarketersGiveBack.com and manages many of her own affiliate sites.
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It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that these are revenue-negative to the states that pass them. They are also a gift to the states that do not. Ultimately, US citizens are the losers, UNLESS they can explain to the politicians how much we all depend on each other, and how interconnected we all are in this day and age. In these economic times we need Internet innovation more than ever. These laws under consideration in California, HI, MD, CT, MD, etc. would sure put a damper on Internet innovation in the US.
Amen. As more information comes my way, I'll be posting it here (including templated documents to use, opinion letters, etc.) to help make it easier for folks to get their voices heard by legislators.