While I personally think the bill's policies are smart business practices, I think the bill keeps getting amended to give the "haves" (Facebook, LinkedIn) a competitive advantage over startups.
Personally, this is a tough one for me. I live in the college town of Davis, and love my local bookstore and the downtown with small shops. That said, buying books on Amazon with Prime is tempting and, at 8.75% sales tax is another plus. (Of course, the biggest is buying electronics...)
Also, the loss of tax revenue is killing the colleges I represent, but this bill is a band-aid solution and a comprehensive federal one that applies to all states equally is probably needed.
Yes, instead of applying the physical presence test for sales tax, SB 234 would apply a substantial nexus test. The opponents argue that this would require Amazon to collect sales tax if it maintains its Affiliates program, as they are arguably resellers/referrers located within California.
Cool. I like to refer to the official source as well, and then let people know that aroundthecapitol has tracking and commenting options. Thanks for letting people know about this bill.
On my hobby site, aroundthecapitol.com, you can post comments about the bill using disqus and facebook. It's a quick way to alert your friends about this bill and its impact on your business. I'm an education lobbyist, but have been working to make legislative information more accessible and actionable.