BUCKHANNON — On Monday, in an interview with My Buckhannon, Sen. Bill Hamilton (R-11) announced plans to establish an internet sales tax, along with passing an 81.82 percent tax increase on property and casualty insurance.
An internet sales tax will place an additional charge on all online products, which includes items sold by Amazon, Ebay, and local internet retailers. While Hamilton supports removing the social security income tax, which would result in $80 million a year in lost revenue, he wants to replace it with a tax on all online items.
“That’s supposedly going to bring in $65 or $70 million, so we could use that,” Hamilton told My Buckhannon.
“We’re the third oldest state in the nation. We have a lot of people who, when they retire, come back home and live on the family farm or what-have-you, and I think [eliminating the Social Security tax] is giving a break to people that have basically supported us.”
Additionally, Hamilton expressed that he plans to run a bill that would increase casualty and property insurance by 81.82 percent, from .55 percent to 1 percent. He expressed that these funds would be directed toward local fire departments within the state.
“Right now, they’re getting somewhere around $44,000 (annually) in their departments,” Hamilton said. “I want to move the surcharge back to 1 percent, which the state fire marshal has recommended we do that.”
“There’s only so many hot dogs and bake sales you can have to produce revenue,” he added, “and if there’s anything I hate, it’s when you’re driving along to a festival, and the firemen are standing out there with a boot collecting money for their department. But if we moved that surcharge back to a dollar, it’s not going to quite double their money, but it’s probably going to put another $38,000 to $40,000 in their accounts that they can use to buy fire trucks and equipment, and take care of their classes and trainings they’ve got to go to.”
Hamilton is a freshman senator, defeating former Sen. Robert Karnes in the 2018 republican primary, and Laura Finch (D) in the 2018 general election.