Yes, “this weekend is” indeed “the time to write again” to your representatives/legislators. The fight is not yet lost, and having listened to most of the hearing at the Colorado House yesterday evening, I was extremely pleased to see multiple representatives really standing against the tax that will “vaporize” (as one of the legislators pointed out) multitudes of small businesses, leaving thousands people without a job.

I agree that the idea of raising “$4 million annually” is a mere myth. Overstock has already announced that they will pull out of Colorado if the tax legislation passes. Amazon has pulled out of NC and RI after similar laws were passed in these states [glad to see yesterday's article in The Colorado Statesman remembering this part], and as pointed out in CO House’s yesterday’s hearing, RI (which has implemented the tax) has not yet collected any money in this tax (but they did leave hundreds of businesses without a major source of income).

Yes, education is the key. Keep pressing on, Colorado affiliate marketers!!

In addition now that HB10-1193 passed the first house vote on Friday evening, I understand from an email from Rebecca Madigan that they will have another vote on Monday, then it passes to the Colorado Senate. I believe this weekend is the time to write again to the House Democrats, and to the Senate Democrats. If you watched the proceedings on the Colorado Channel, you saw the Republicans stand up and defend our position. I applaud their efforts on our behalf. Unfortunately it did not sway the opinion.

Apparently the House Democrats are willing to gamble that the proposal will actually generate revenue for Colorado, which they believe to be about 4 million annually. We all know this is not going to happen after thousands of Colorado affiliates are fired by merchants they represent. Colorado will be lucky to get any revenue out of it at all.

The impact of the bill could be devastating for many businesses in Colorado, including mine. Employees working for larger affiliate based businesses could lose their jobs, or have to move out of state as the case may be. I am in favor of a physical protest if we can get enough Colorado affiliates to participate, and I am discussing this with others right now.

Education is the key. Lawmakers need to understand how our business works, and that this tax only targets affiliate marketers unfairly. It will also result in a decline in revenue to Colorado from the Income tax category. We need to get busy and keep writing and communicating about this unconstitutional bill.