Fayette

County commissioners are tentatively in favor of

taxing Internet business, so far.

Commissioner

Herb Frady polled the group on the subject during

last week's commission meeting. Frady is a member

of the Taxation and Finance Committee of the

National Association of Counties, and the

committee dug into the controversial subject

during the NACo annual convention this past

weekend.

After

returning from the conference Tuesday, Frady said

the national lobbying organization is poised to

push hard for Internet taxation.

Local

and state governments are missing out on $20

billion a year in sales taxes that could be

charged on Internet sales transactions, Frady

said.

"I

just feel it's unfair to our local businesses not

to support this," said Frady. "They're

paying sales tax to us... why shouldn't the

Internet businesses pay the same tax," he

said, adding that it will be at least two years

before an Internet sales tax can be enacted,

because President Clinton has issued an executive

order effectively placing a moratorium on the

idea.

U.S.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott also has been a

vocal opponent of the idea of taxing Internet

sales, saying electronic commerce should be free

of government regulation and taxation. Getting a

program to the Senate floor for a vote will be a

difficult task, Frady conceded.

One

strategy that NACo hopes to employ, he said, is

to draw up a detailed program so that Congress

will have something to sink its teeth into.

"We're

going to draw up a footprint of what we're going

to do, how we're going to do it and have it ready

said.

Questions

like how the taxes will be disbursed to different

states and counties and how it will be collected

will be among those answered in advance, Frady

said.

During

last week's Fayette Commission meeting,

Commissioners Linda Wells and Greg Dunn said

they're not ready to say whether they support the

idea or not. "This is going to be one of the

biggest issues in the next few years," said

Dunn.

"I

don't feel we have enough information to move

forward," added Wells.

"This

is just saying we support the basic

concept," said Frady.

Commissioners

Glen Gosa and Harold Bost said they support the

basic concept.

Other

count governments that are members of NACo

apparently are strongly in favor of the idea,

said Frady. The 75-member Taxation and Finance

Committee appears unanimous, and there was a lot

of support among the 5,000 NACo members in

attendance as well, he said.

About

half of the states in the U.S. have significant

numbers of counties that are members of the

advocacy group, he added.

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