UNTAXED INTERNET UNFAIR, SAYS ONE POLL

Barely were the results dry on an Iowa poll saying a majority it questioned found Internet taxes unfair, there comes a second poll saying something very different - this poll says a majority of those it questioned believe an untaxed Internet is unfair.

At least, that's regarding Internet sales taxes. The National Association of Counties and the U.S. Conference of Mayors have conducted a poll showing 72 percent of those Americans it surveyed say it isn't fair for local businesses to collect sales taxes while those doing retail business online do not. The poll results were released Monday.

Moreover, the joint poll says, 60 percent of those it questioned say they support taxing goods bought online - a contradiction, says Wired, of an Iowa poll issued the day before where a majority of those polled said to keep the Internet tax-free.

"Whether shopping online or shopping at Sears, Americans realize that many of their community's established retailers are unfairly disadvantaged because they are collecting sales taxes while their dazzling cyber competitors are not," says Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, in a statement issued with the poll, according to Wired.

Various supporters of Internet taxes have argued state and local governments could lose up to ten percent of sales tax revenue from an untaxed Internet over the next five years.

Both polls came just before a congressionally-mandated committee weighing Net growth against the "erosion" of sales tax revenues meets in San Francisco. On- and offline tax fairness is seen as a key issue facing Congress in 2000. The Clinton Administration is on record against Net taxes in favor of simplifying the nation's tangled sales tax collections.

Two Republican presidential candidates - Arizona Senator John McCain and Forbes publisher Steve Forbes - want a permanent Net tax ban, while Texas governor George W. Bush favors at least keeping the current Net tax moratorium another three years, as does Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic front-runner. Only former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, who trails Gore in the Democratic hunt, has refused to rule out Internet taxes.