Title
RESOLUTION BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF JONESBORO, ARKANSAS URGING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO ENACT LEGISLATION THAT WILL ENABLE STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TO COLLECT REVENUES DUE TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT THAT ARE ESSENTIAL TO THE EXPANSION OF OUR LOCAL AND REGIONAL ECONOMY, CREATION OF THOUSANDS OF NEW JOBS, ENHANCEMENT OF THE QUALITY OF LIFE WITHIN OUR COMMUNITIES, AND PRESERVATION OF LIMITED STATE AND LOCAL REVENUE SOURCES.
Body
WHEREAS, many State and Local governments rely on the collection of sales and use taxes to support funding to improve needed infrastructure improvements, strengthen local small businesses, create jobs for their citizens, and fund essential services; and
WHEREAS, local small businesses confront expanded competition from the explosion of Internet sales by remote sellers who are unwilling to collect and remit properly assessed sales taxes to State and Local governments; and
WHEREAS, national studies reveal that State and Local governments lose approximately $30 Billion each year from uncollected sales taxes from transactions involving remote Internet retailers; and
WHEREAS, State and Local associations, including the Government Finance Officers Association, the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, the United States Conference of Mayors, and the National Governors Association, along with partners in the retail community, worked together for years to develop a fair and easy system to collect and remit these sales taxes structured on a system of collection based on the purchaser's location; and
WHEREAS, through this collaborative effort, we believe that an effective and efficient response in eliminating the competitive disadvantage faced by our local small business retailers appeared in 2013 when the Marketplace Fairness Act passed in the United States Senate through a bi-partisan effort and would have established a fair system for the collection of existing taxes owed to State and Local gover...
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