California Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law the compromise bill that delays for a year Amazon.com collecting sales tax on sales in the state. In return, Amazon has dropped its $5-million campaign for a state referendum seeking to overturn the law passed this summer that required Amazon and similar online retailers to collect sales tax immediately. The law could be superseded by a national law on online sales tax collection, but that seems unlikely given the political battles in Washington.
According to the AP, Amazon's v-p of global public policy Paul Misener said at the signing ceremony in Gap offices in San Francisco that Amazon will "bring $500 million in investment to California over the next several years, mainly in the form of massive distribution centers." (Presumably they will have air conditioning.) Amazon is also re-establishing links with affiliates in the state and says it will create at least 10,000 jobs and hire 25,000 seasonal employees in California by the end of 2015.
