A Federal District Judge temporarily stayed the collection of sales taxes from online retailers in Colorado, State Bill Colorado reported. The 2010 law, dubbed the “Amazon Tax,” was passed by the then-Democratic controlled legislature. Majority Leader Amy Stephens, R-Colorado Springs, talked to WhoSaidYouSaid in November about why the law was bad policy from the beginning and her intention to propose a bill to overturn it.

“Well, you know, last session a representative from Amazon came here and said ‘Look we believe that this bill violates the commerce clause and unfortunately for us we would have to lay off our affiliates should this bill pass. We don’t want to. We think there are better ways to do this.’

“And that fell on deaf ears on the Democrat side of aisle and so they passed the bill and it was signed into law. And true to their word Amazon had to say goodbye to the affiliates.”

We’re looking forward to another video commentary on this subject from state Senate Majority Leader John Morse, D-Colorado Springs. But it will be hard to beat the one he posted last March…

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Now that Republicans will control the Colorado House of Representatives in January, it looks like the so-called “Amazon Tax” may be on the chopping block. Labeled one of the “dirty dozen” tax-exemption eliminations (read: tax increases), the Internet sales-tax collection plan caused a stir when Amazon.com cut ties with its Colorado affiliates.

“There’s a chance to reach a compromise,” said state Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, the Colorado News Agency reported today. “Like us, we believe the new governor cares about jobs. We will work with the governor and his staff to reach a compromise. I don’t think anyone thinks we’ve gained anything from this Amazon tax.”

How Gov.-elect John Hickenlooper responds on this particular issue will be a good test of his vow on the campaign trail to “brand Colorado as a pro-business state.” Back in March, Chuck Plunkett of The Denver Post wrote that Hickenlooper “missed a golden opportunity in not weighing in on this tax” at the time.

And to recall what a pro-business state DOES NOT look like, see the video (above) from March in which state Sen. John Morse, D-Colo. Springs, accused Amazon of “tyranny.”

When the Democratic-controlled legislature in Colorado pursued an Internet sales-tax collection plan, Amazon.com cut ties with affiliates in the state.

But state Rep. Max Tyler, D-Lakewood, has used his Internet investigative skills to claim that “we’re not really hurting these people.”

Phew. I feel better. Then again, I’m not an Internet affiliate marketer. If you are, his e-mail is repmaxtyler@gmail.com.

At the same event on Saturday, Tyler did linguistic backflips to avoid the phrase “tax increase.”

Democratic lawmakers in Colorado defending their pursuit of sales taxes from online purchases are setting up the state as a bad place to do business (witness Amazon.com severing its Colorado affiliates) and a hassle for consumers.

Listen to some of the fallout described by two journalists on Independent Thinking, hosted by Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute.

ED SEALOVER of the Denver Business Journal: In addition to having Amazon send people this little note saying you’ve got to pay the state, they’re also asking Amazon to send notes to the state, saying, ‘Oh, by the way, so-and-so bought this much worth of product from us; they owe you this much.’ So, when you get the note from Amazon, there’s a note going to the state saying, ‘John Smith owes this much.’ And you could be, if you’re not paying, the state could come after you.

CALDARA: So this will be a nice little tattletale system. So since they’re not going to enforce it, they can’t get Amazon to collect it, Amazon will have to tattletale on what I buy. And guess what, I’m not paying the sales tax. Nobody’s going to be paying the sales tax.

ELI STOKOLS of Fox 31: Well, it’s tough. And that’s what, you know, businesses that do online sales in Colorado are just going to leave. We’ve done stories on that at Fox 31 where you have entire businesses – 20, 30 employees – and they say, ‘These jobs are gone because we’re not going to do this business in this state.’

You have farmers out there on the Eastern Plains of the state that have these big…I mean, we’re not talking small quantities, they’re buying a lot of agricultural products. So the tax on them is big. You can understand the outrage from these specific businesses, companies, these industries that are sort of being picked out.

Because there’s 100 of these exemptions and credits on the books and only 13 of them were proposed, I think, by the governor’s office and the JBC (Joint Budget Committee) to be, these loopholes, to be closed. So you can understand why those folks feel like this is a little bit arbitrary. Even though we’ve heard from the governor over and over again: ‘This isn’t arbitrary. This is a balanced approach and we’re not killing business.’

Check out unhinged Colorado Senate Majority Leader John Morse, getting revved up over Amazon’s decision to drop its Colorado affiliates after Morse and his cohorts jammed through an Internet sales-tax collection plan.

“I spent many years as a police officer and I have not seen such tyranny, such egregiousness, such retaliation, especially from a corporate customer that makes in excess of $900 million a year,” fumed Morse.

It’s infuriating, isn’t it, when profit-making businesses act rationally to protect their interests? If only they would bow to the whims of state legislators and do as they’re told. Ha!

When last we checked in with Morse, he was happily downing Mountain Dew, not so worried about the 2.9 percent soda-and-candy tax he and his colleagues had imposed.

This time, however, it’s personal, with Morse pledging to turn off his prized Amazon Kindle and buy an Apple iPad. LOL! I bet they don’t miss him.

What WILL be missed? The revenue generated for these partner companies. This means jobs in Colorado. Did anyone notice that John didn’t mention WHY Amazon decided to do this? Perhaps because of the COST to them to fulfill this requirement? This is a business decision, plain and simple. If there’s tyranny (ok – it’s more like rank incompetence) it’s in the Dem controlled state legislature. Watch carefully to see what other major players decide to do in light of Amazon’s leadership. Now back to ordering online…