NJ Democrats to Introduce Bill to Entice Amazon to Garden State

Legislation has been introduced in Trenton that’s designed to encourage online retail giant Amazon .com – and other big online companies – to operate in the Garden state.

One of the sponsors - Assemblyman Al Coutinho - says the measure would allow for a sales tax holiday – up till September first of 2013 “for any online retailer such as Amazon - that would come in and make a capital investment –with a minimum of 65 million dollars and create a minimum of 15 hundred jobs.”

He stresses the legislation will create an opportunity to get more New Jerseyans back to work, and it will also begin to solve the inequity that online retailers have with New Jersey based retailers, because it would create a date certain when they would begin paying sales tax.

A group called The Alliance for Main Street Fairness New Jersey is criticizing the legislation, saying New Jersey-based businesses have been operating at a competitive price disadvantage for years, and Internet retailers like Amazon have exploited a loophole and failed to collect the sales tax.