The group, its opponents maintain, is out of balance by 7-9. Gilmore also said that so far no one has volunteered. Netscape Communications Corp. CEO James Barksdale could step down, considering that their companies are scheduled to merge, either of those choices is unlikely. Gilmore and Armstrong at yesterday's meeting both argued that battle lines should not be permanently drawn now, saying that there is still 18 months to try to hash out the issues within the commission. Even the business community is not unanimous.
Nobody wants any local government or state government to be deprived of revenue.
Gilmore, while saying that online taxation laws could wind up being the same in all 50 states, questioned what to do about states such as New Hampshire or Delaware that do not have a sales tax now. In spite of all the different state tax laws, as well as all the attention being paid to the possibility of multiple jurisdiction taxation, New York Republican Gov. George Pataki pulled out the formidable electronic commerce numbers.