Today at Bowman Jewelers in Johnson City, Tennessee, Gary Maybrey, President, Johnson City Chamber or Commerce, Linda Bowman O’Dell and Rob Bowman, Owner’s, Bowman Jewelers joined in a conference call that included Senator Lamar Alexander, Governor Bill Haslam, several retailers and chamber representatives across Tennessee to discuss The Fair Marketplace Equity Act. This bill, sponsored by Senator Alexander would close the online tax loophole and is supported by Governor Haslam. Both Rob Bowman and Maybrey are among those who are joining a steering committee of the alliance for Main Street Fairness to push for a fair online tax policy.

Senator Alexander said, “I’m glad we’re talking about this and I really appreciate Governor Haslam’s leadership. I’ve also talked with the Lieutenant Governor, Ron Ramsey and the speaker, Beth Harlow about it and they all support the legislation. We’ve got six Democrats and five Republicans and the bottom line is it gives the state the right to collect the sales tax that’s already owed. We sometimes call this a tax loophole but the truth is, it isn’t really a loophole because a loophole is something that is in the tax law that people got in there that the rest of us have to pay. In this case, this is a matter of people not pay taxes they owe. Conservatives, Republicans, don’t like that because it prefers some tax payers over others, it prefers some businesses over others and from a state point of view I can see why the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker would want the right to decide this because if everyone would pay the taxes that they owe the state legislature might decide to lower the rates for everybody or they might decide to raise salaries for outstanding teachers. This is the state’s right, in this matter it’s about giving the states the right to decide whether to collect the tax that’s already owed.

“I think from the state’s standpoint the thing that’s out there to quantify this is that is there’s probably two to three million dollars a year of sales tax that’s owed that’s not being paid. The Senator’s right, this is not a new tax, this is a tax that’s not being forced to be collected. I think it’s about two percent tax on every grocery item in the state. That’s the ability to pay great teachers more. Beyond the state level, local government property taxes will end up being impacted as fewer and fewer retailers are able to make it because they’re competing with internet based retailers. It was brought home to me because my daughter-in-law buys dishwashing detergent over the Internet now. This is just to big of a piece of our economy to continue to treat it like we did a couple of years ago.” said Governor Haslam.

Bowman O’Dell said, “I think that the merchants of Tennessee just want there to be a fair market place. We can meet or match prices and then we lose the sale due to our sales tax; we’d just like an even playing field where it’s just fair everyone.”