BTW News Briefs

Enzi Introduces Sales Tax Fairness and Simplification Act

On Tuesday, December 20, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced in the Senate the Sales Tax Fairness and Simplification Act (S. 2152), legislation that seeks to "level the playing field for all in-store, catalog, and online retailers so each has the same sales tax responsibilities [and to] help states collect more revenue from the sales."

S. 2152 seeks to help states efficiently and fairly collect sales and use tax revenue that is being lost because remote sellers do not have to remit sales and use taxes on catalog and Internet purchases. Main Street retailers collect sales taxes, while many online and catalog retailers are exempt from collecting the same taxes. This is costing states and localities billions in lost revenue. Enzi's bill would encourage tax simplification by requiring states to implement and maintain measures before they can require any seller to collect and remit sales and use taxes.

"Simply put, if Congress continues to allow remote sales taxes to go uncollected and electronic commerce continues to grow as predicted, other taxes, such as income or property taxes, will have to be increased to offset the lost revenue to state and local governments. I want to avoid that," said Enzi.

National Endowment for the Arts Announces "The Big Read"

On December 20, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in partnership with Arts Midwest, announced the pilot phase of "The Big Read," a national initiative modeled on successful city read programs that aims to encourage literary reading by asking communities to come together to read and discuss one book. Ten organizations were selected from a pool of 45 applicants to receive grants ranging from $15,000 to $40,000 to promote and carry out four- to six-week, community-based programs to encourage reading by teens and adults. Pilot communities, ranging in population from 7,000 to more than 4 million people, will read one of four classic novels: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury; The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; or To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

To encourage community-wide participation in the project, each locale will develop its own program of activities related to the selected novel in collaboration with community partners including schools and colleges, arts organizations, and local government. Program activities are scheduled to take place from February to May 2006.

The 10 grant recipients are: Arkansas Center for the Book in Little Rock; Fishtrap, Inc. in Enterprise, Oregon; Florida Center for the Literary Arts/Florida Center for the Book in Miami; Fresno County Library in Fresno, California; Huntsville-Madison County Public Library in Huntsville, Alabama; Just Buffalo Literary Center in Buffalo, New York; The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis; Log Cabin Literary Center in Boise, Idaho; South Dakota Center for the Book in Brookings/Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Topeka/Shawnee County Public Library in Topeka, Kansas.

More information is available on the NEA website.

Sorenson Named NEBA's Assistant Executive Director

This week, the New England Bookseller's Association (NEBA) announced that Nan Sorensen had been hired as the association's assistant executive director. Sorenson worked for NEBA several years ago before moving to Houghton Mifflin, where, for the last five years, she has been the sales coordinator. Sorenson will join NEBA on January 9.

Among her duties as Houghton Mifflin's sales coordinator, Sorenson oversaw arrangements for the publisher's exhibits at bookseller association trade shows and at trade sales conferences. NEBA noted that Sorenson's experience uniquely qualified her to help bring about change in two areas of major importance for the regional -- its trade show and catalog.