How to stop pushing jobs out of Illinois
by Emily Dietrich “If we repeal this law, these jobs will come back to Illinois,” said Brian Littleton, founder and CEO of ShareASale, at a press conference announcing the introduction of legislation to repeal Illinois’ affiliate nexus law, sometimes referred to as the “Amazon tax.” Wednesday’s press conference focused on the thousands of Illinois businesses...
by Emily Dietrich
“If we repeal this law, these jobs will come back to Illinois,” said Brian Littleton, founder and CEO of ShareASale, at a press conference announcing the introduction of legislation to repeal Illinois’ affiliate nexus law, sometimes referred to as the “Amazon tax.”
Wednesday’s press conference focused on the thousands of Illinois businesses hurt by the affiliate nexus law.
Since becoming effective in July 2011, the affiliate nexus law has reduced the revenue stream of thousands of Illinois-based online marketing affiliates and sent good jobs across state lines. To make matters worse, it isn’t clear that the law is actually bringing in any new net revenue.
Representative Dave Winters of Rockford has seen the impact of the affiliate nexus law up close. The marketing affiliate business, FatWallet, employed over 50 people in Rockford, Illinois. As a result of this law, the company faced losing up to 30 percent of its business. Instead of staying in Illinois, FatWallet packed up and moved its operations to Beloit, Wisconsin. The loss of a valued employer spurred Winters to introduced HB 3869, which repeals the affiliate nexus law.
Mike Martin and Jonathan Wallace are two online entrepreneurs from Rock Island whose businesses have seen zero growth since the enactment of the affiliate nexus law. The video below tells the story of how their Illinois businesses were changed, overnight.
To read more about the affiliate nexus law and how repeal will make Illinois’ business climate more hospitable for online entrepreneurs, click here.
You can see if your state senator and representative voted for or against the affiliate nexus law during the lame duck session earlier this year by checking in our latest Legislative Vote Card.
This story was also covered by ABC, NBC and WTAX-Springfield.