Tax rebate deals with Apple, Amazon and Netflix are bad news for communities

[Commentary] Amazon has finally agreed to pay sales taxes to the state of California, but that doesn't mean it has stopped trying to weasel out of paying everything it should.

Amazon is reportedly trying to strike deals with two local communities that would cut the sales taxes it pays, according to recent media reports. Outrageous, sure, but not unprecedented. In the Bay Area there are several companies that either have similar deals or have their hands out asking for them, including Apple and Netflix. In such an arrangement, a company agrees to funnel more of its sales through a city and the city agrees to refund some portion of the extra sales tax money it's getting back to the company. Nobody knows how common such arrangements are. State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, who is thinking of introducing a bill to stop or limit such deals, said his office is trying to figure out the extent of their use.