[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 91 (Thursday, June 23, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S4075]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was 
referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-47. A resolution adopted by the Senate of the State of 
     Rhode Island urging the members of the Rhode Island 
     Congressional Delegation to join as cosponsors of the Main 
     Street Fairness Act and the President of the United States to 
     sign into law the Main Street Fairness Act, upon its passage 
     from Congress; to the Committee on Finance.

                 Senate Resolution No. 11R280(11-S0976)

       Whereas, the 1967 Bellas Hess and the 1992 Quill U.S. 
     Supreme Court decisions denied states the authority to 
     require collection of sales and use taxes by out-of-state 
     sellers that have no physical presence in the taxing state; 
     and
       Whereas, the combined weight of the inability to collect 
     sales and use taxes on remote sales through traditional 
     carriers and the tax erosion due to electronic commerce 
     threatens the future viability of the sales tax as a stable 
     revenue source for state and local governments; and
       Whereas, according to the National Conference of State 
     Legislatures, states lost an estimated $8.6 billion in 2010, 
     and total revenue loss is projected to balloon to $37 billion 
     from 2009 to 2012; and
       Whereas, according to the National Conference of State 
     Legislatures, Rhode Island will lose an estimated $70.4 
     million in Fiscal Year 2012 because of this inability to 
     require remote sellers to collect our state's sales and use 
     taxes; and
       Whereas, Rhode Island is one of twenty-four states 
     complying with the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement; 
     and
       Whereas, The Main Street Fairness Act has been introduced 
     in the 112th Congress to grant those states that comply with 
     the agreement the authority to require all sellers, 
     regardless of nexus, to collect those states' sales and use 
     taxes: Now, therefore be it
       Resolved, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and 
     Providence Plantations calls upon the members of our 
     Congressional Delegation to join as cosponsors of the Main 
     Street Fairness Act to support its swift adoption by the 
     Congress of the United States; and be it further
       Resolved, That this Senate urges President Barack Obama to 
     sign the Main Street Fairness Act into law, upon its passage 
     by the Congress; and be it further
       Resolved, That the Secretary of State be and he hereby is 
     authorized and directed to transmit duly certified copies of 
     this resolution to the President of the United States, the 
     President and Secretary of the United States Senate, the 
     Speaker and the Clerk of the United States House of 
     Representatives, the Chair of the Senate Committee on 
     Finance, the Chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, 
     and Rhode Island's Congressional Delegation.

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