US Senators

Udall and Heinrich vote for Marketplace Fairness

US_SenatorsAdmin — Sat, 18 May 2013 08:47:49 +0000

In a rare bipartisan moment, something significant happened last week in the U.S. Senate, and New Mexico’s two U. S. senators, Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, helped to make it happen by voting to end the chaos and misunderstanding surrounding the sales tax and online purchases.

And good for them and the 67 other senators who joined in bipartisan passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act.

One of the major fictions about commerce today is that Internet sales are immune from what we here in New Mexico call the gross receipts tax but is more commonly known elsewhere as the sales tax.

Yet, while the great bulk of online sales do go tax free, so to speak, others are in fact legally subject to the sales tax in New Mexico and other states with such a tax.

By law, any retailer with an outlet, store or office in a state where a consumer makes an online purchase is required to collect whatever rate the sales tax is levied. So if you live in New Mexico and purchase a coat from Eddie Bauer, you are obligated to pay the 5.125 to 8.6875 percent (depending on location) gross receipts tax levied on that sale.

Why? Because Eddie Bauer has an outlet in New Mexico.

What’s more, some 45 states, New Mexico included, actually have laws requiring consumers to pay the requisite sales-gross receipts taxes directly to the state on any Internet purchases they make.

Veteran Albuquerque tax guru, CPA Peter Brunson, says “some states even have an online sales tax box on their tax forms that you can check when filing your annual tax return.” Need it be said that, despite its official gross receipts tax on Internet sales, New Mexico makes no such provision on its tax return forms?

Small wonder some folks have come to regard Internet retail transactions as a tax-free zone: It isn’t collected at the time of online sales, and purchasers may not even realize they are obligated to pay it.

It’s a loosey-goosey arrangement with high costs. A couple of years ago, the Risk and Compliance Journal of the Wall Street Journal estimated that “state and local governments would lose some $10 billion in uncollected e-commerce taxes in 2011.”

Nor is it a secret that many locally-based retailers, large and small, have long cried foul about the competitive disadvantage they face as Internet sales grow apace, in part because many of those sales are less expensive absent a tax.

“Right now,” notes Heinrich, “out-of-state (online) retailers who do business in our state can offer lower prices than our local businesses simply because they aren’t obligated to pay sales taxes.”

Heinrich and Udall supported the Marketplace Fairness Act precisely because it gives states and localities a framework for enforcing the sales tax on internet sales. Moreover, Udall adds, “It has broad support from mayors and organizations throughout the state and country because it will help keep local businesses open and jobs in their communities.”

Reports are that New Mexico lost 3,000 businesses and the jobs those businesses provided between 2007 and 2011. The fury of the Great Recession accounts for most of these setbacks. But New Mexicans have no choice but to regain that lost ground and those lost jobs, and leveling the playing field on which local and Internet retailers compete is a good place to begin.

The bipartisan support that moved the Marketplace Fairness Act out of the Senate last week was calculated to do just that–level the field.

What happens when the measure comes before the U.S. House, where meritorious legislation is often DOA these days, is another matter.

Hal Rhodes is the founder of New Mexico News Services and a longtime TV journalist on the public television station KNME in Albuquerque.

Senate committee reapproves ‘land for land’ deals

US_SenatorsAdmin — Sat, 18 May 2013 08:47:39 +0000

The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has approved a bill that allows the federal government to continue selling some of its land so it can specifically obtain other property desired or projects such as parks.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand greets panel members from the military and the Defense Department testifying on Capitol Hill on March 13 before the subcommittee’s hearing on sexual assault in the military.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand greets panel members from the military and the Defense Department testifying on Capitol Hill on March 13 before the subcommittee’s hearing on sexual assault in the military.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is introducing legislation with other lawmakers Thursday that would change how the military handles sexual assault cases. The proposal would let military prosecutors — rather than commanders — decide whether to bring serious military crimes to trial.

It’s the latest high-publicity move for a senator who was virtually unknown four years ago when she was appointed to fill Hillary Clinton’s senate seat. Now, she’s on some lists for possible candidates for vice president — even president.

Kirsten Gillibrand has a soft voice that takes on a certain earnestness when she gets angry. Two months ago, she ripped into military officials for letting commanders decide which sexual assaults to bring to trial.

“If the convening authority

You can read the rest of this article at: http://www.npr.org/2013/05/16/184399448/sen-gillibrand-profile

ND senator says passage of water bill is important step toward construction of …

US_SenatorsAdmin — Sat, 18 May 2013 08:46:54 +0000

FARGO, North Dakota — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved a water bill that includes authorization for a Red River flood diversion channel, the significance of which is being debated much like the project itself.

The nearly $2 billion proposal to move water around Fargo is part of the 2013 Water Resources Development Act, which now moves onto the U.S. House for consideration. Darrell Vanyo, chairman of the Flood Diversion Board, said the Senate vote should provide momentum for the project.

“Each milestone means there’s one less in front of us,” Vanyo. “We’re hopeful that authorization will happen in the House and then of course we will be working on appropriation.”

Nathan Berseth, a spokesman for the MnDak Upstream Coalition, a group of residents opposed to the current diversion plan, called the Senate passage “a no-news event” and predicted tougher times for project supporters in the House.

“On top of that, authorization is one thing, funding is another,” Berseth said. “They can throw around authorizations like party favors.”

Authorization would allow construction to begin, but the federal funding would need to be appropriated each year to cover the construction costs, which would be shared by local, state and federal governments.

North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven called Wednesday’s action “a big step toward the construction phase of the project,” which he said will protect a quarter of a million people in North Dakota and Minnesota.

“We need to maintain our momentum and move it ahead,” Hoeven said. “We need to put the cost and hardship of annual flood fights behind us.”

Vanyo plans a trip to Washington next week to gauge the House’s attitude on the project and talk to lawmakers who handle funding. He’ll be joined by Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker, Fargo City Administrator Pat Zavoral and Cass County Administrator Keith Berndt, among others.

“We’re hoping at least by the end of the year the House will address and pass something,” Vanyo said. “But we’re going to go to D.C. and get it straight from them.”

Proponents say the 36-mile diversion is needed to protect Fargo-area residents, who have dealt with major flood threats in four of the last

You can read the rest of this article at: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/4753bff807e54445a5e411e1c8e0feaf/ND--Fargo-Flooding-Diversion

North Dakota feeling a draft

US_SenatorsAdmin — Sat, 18 May 2013 08:46:43 +0000

Talk about it

The U.S. Department of the Interior released an updated draft of rules on hydraulic fracturing Thursday, but it appears those on both sides of the fracking issue are unhappy with the proposal.

The 171-page draft offered by the DOI’s Bureau of Land Management arm seems to have found enough middle ground in the pitched set of guidelines that neither environmentalists or oil and gas industry representatives and supporters are happy.

Leading North Dakota politicians blasted the proposal while the head of the Sierra Club said his organization was “alarmed and disappointed by the fundamental inadequacy” of the billed collection of regulations, which would represent the first update of federal fracking rules in more than three decades.

“America needs to develop more energy with better environmental stewardship to lead us to the goal of North American energy security,” said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., in a statement. “The way to achieve that goal, however, is not to add a new layer of regulation and bureaucracy on top of the thorough regulatory regimen that states already administer.”

Highlights of the of the report include the allowance of energy companies to keep certain chemicals used in the fracking process sealed from the public under “trade secret” status (though the BLM would be privy to that information) and a provision calling for the development of a “consistent oversight and disclosure model that will apply across all public and Indian lands” which are available for oil and gas development.

The complete report — which will have a public comment period of 30 days that will begin sometime next week, according to DOI spokesperson Jessica Kershaw — can be found on the DOI website.

“I am still not convinced the federal government should be looking to craft one-size-fits-all regulations which duplicate regulations already in place at the state and tribal level,” said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., in a statement released by her office. “While a vast improvement on previous drafts, these draft regulations would still stand to cause delays and frustrations in permitting and drilling on federal

You can read the rest of this article at: http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/68554/

North Dakota Senator speaks at Democrat dinner in Bllings

US_SenatorsAdmin — Sat, 18 May 2013 08:46:32 +0000

BILLINGS – Three U-S Senators joined the Yellowstone County Democratic Central Committee, to celebrate the Truman Dinner Friday night at the Billings Hotel Convention Center.
About 200 came out the 27th annual dinner including, Senators Jon Tester, Max Baucus and Heidi Heitkamp form North Dakota.
As with Montana, Senator Heitkamp talked about agriculture and energy, also being important to her constituency.
And she agrees with Senator Baucus with regard to the IRS investigation.
“There had been complaints levied for a lot of years and had been kind of poo pooed,” Heitkamp said. “I think it’s a reminder, sometimes when people say this is happening to me, you ought to look into it. we can not have an IRS that makes determinations based on politics as opposed to the law.”
Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau and former Governor Brian Schweitzer also came to the Truman Dinner.

You can read the rest of this article at: http://www.ktvq.com/news/north-dakota-senator-speaks-at-democrat-dinner-in-bllings/

Local national park bill advances to U.S. Senate

US_SenatorsAdmin — Sat, 18 May 2013 08:46:16 +0000

Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Workers demolish a decommissioned nuclear reactor during the cleanup operations at the Western hemisphere’s most contaminated nuclear site in Hanford, Washington state on March 21, 2011. It sounded like a good idea at the time. Racing to build an atomic bomb during World War II, US authorities sealed off a pristine desert and created the first-ever plutonium reactor. Sixty-eight years later, Hanford remains off limits. Not because of weapons work, which has long ago ceased, but because it is the Western hemisphere’s most contaminated nuclear site with 53 million gallons (200 million liters) of radioactive waste stored in aging tanks. With billions of dollars a year invested in cleanup, there is little palpable fear among residents here in the northwestern state of Washington. Some 12,000 people work at Hanford, which at 586 square miles (1,518 square kilometers) is twice the size of Singapore. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

You can read the rest of this article at: http://www.krem.com/news/northwest-news/National-park-bill-advances-to-US-Senate-207942081.html

Tax cut for small brewers would create jobs, Tammy Baldwin says

US_SenatorsAdmin — Sat, 18 May 2013 08:46:03 +0000

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