Comptroller Franchot Asks MD Consumers to Shop in Stores, Not Online

Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot is asking holiday season shoppers to shun the large out-of-state online retailers and to patronize their local businesses instead.

“I’m challenging all Marylanders out there to get off this cyber kick and get onto Main Street,” Franchot said earlier this month, The Washington Times reported.

From his vantage point, he’s got a good reason. The Maryland Retailers Association reports that shoppers in Maryland are expected to spend over $9 billion this holiday season. And, the more they order through online retailers such as Amazon.com, Netflix.com and many others, the less tax revenue that winds up in the state’s tax coffers.

Sales at bricks-and-mortar stores carry with them a state sales tax of 6 percent. But many, though not all, of the leading online giants simply choose not to charge or collect that sales tax, thus offering slightly lower prices for consumers.

Franchot has embarked on a statewide ‘Shop Maryland’ tour and plans to visit all regions of the state in his bid to promote local shopping, according to his blog, www.franchot.com/blog.

A recent study estimates that the state of Maryland may be losing close to $200 million annually in uncollected sales taxes. For a detailed study on this issue, see the "Maryland Remote Sales Tax Loss Study" attached to this article. (The study is also available for downloading on the website for the Comptroller of Maryland.)

“Has anyone ever seen a Little League baseball team sponsored by Amazon.com,” Franchot asked pointedly earlier this month, The Times reported. “They don’t care about Maryland.”

Franchot is from Takoma Park, and he represented the 20th district in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1987 to 2007 before being elected state comptroller in the 2006 elections.

What do you think? Are you shopping at local stores or ordering presents online this holiday season? Perhaps a combination of both?