Guest editorial: No taxes on Amazon deals costs our state

OK, under the “cone of silence,” how many of you use Amazon to buy a book? How many of you send a check to the state of Vermont for what you owe in use taxes? How many of you would stop buying your books on Amazon if the company collected that tax for you and sent it to Montpelier?

Our guess is that a bunch of you buy books from the online giant, that virtually none of you pony up and send a check to Montpelier for what you owe, and that only a tiny percentage of you would stop shopping on Amazon if the company did collect the tax.