Katherine Braun sorts packages toward the right shipping area at an Amazon.com fulfillment center in Goodyear, Ariz., in this Associated Press file photo. Some Tennessee lawmakers object to Amazon not paying sales taxes on products that will be shipped from its Hamilton and Bradley fulfillment centers.Many of us in Hamilton County and neighboring Bradley County are still exulting over Internet retail giant Amazon's plans to invest $139 million in distribution centers here, providing thousands of local jobs paying average annual wages of more than $30,000. But there is even more potential good news from Amazon.
A filing by Amazon suggests an investment of $180 million and additional employment of some 1,700 people full time and 2,000 more part time within a couple of years, at three more distribution centers in Nashville and Knoxville.
All certainly are welcome.
Yet there have been questions regarding Amazon's collection of sales taxes. The local facilities would be distribution centers for goods bought in online transactions. The centers would not be retail stores per se, so Amazon was told prior to coming to Tennessee that it would not have to collect sales taxes here. But some in the Tennessee General Assembly want Amazon to have to collect those taxes. Disputes over such things led Amazon to pull out of South Carolina and Texas, costing jobs.
We don't want that here. Realistic, mature and practical economic considerations should head off such mutually harmful actions.