Amazon offers to build facilities in bid to end sales tax fight

Amazon is offering to build at least two distribution centers and hire as many as 7,000 workers if lawmakers back away — at least temporarily — from trying to force the Internet giant to collect sales taxes on purchases made by California customers.

The proposal, along with promises to invest as much as $500 million in the new facilities, was made in the form of draft legislation at a meeting between Amazon lobbyists and representatives of companies that belong to the California Retailers Association. The retailers trade group and other supporters of California's effort to collect more than $300 million a year in unpaid taxes on Internet sales dismissed the Amazon compromise as a ploy. "The so-called deal that Amazon has proposed is not serious," said Bill Dombrowski, president of the retailers group. Lenny Goldberg of the California Tax Reform Assn. called it "a totally cynical maneuver that's part of the game that they try to play in every state."