Especially since there is no sales tax in Oregon where I live :)

Carrie, you used to live in the Bay Area right? Sales tax has been 9% in San Francisco for a pretty long time and a lot of people still pay for it I guess. My mom lives in Contra Costa and the sales tax is 8.25%. She actually bought her coffee table and bed online and saved hundreds of dollars on taxes. I guess it can be worse. My cousins live in Vancouver, BC and the taxes on purchasing is something like 14%.

Disregarding the cost, I've found physical shopping is nothing but a waste of time.

The bookstore didn't have the book I wanted.

The glasses place didn't have the shades I wanted.

The CD place didn't have the CD I wanted.

They all offered to order it for me.

I can do that myself.

And don't get me started on all the physical stores stocking forced labor shoes & clothes at premium prices because they've got some logo on them.

My sales taxes (Texas) are over 8%. This is one of the main reasons I signed up for Amazon Prime. For things like razor blades and shampoo, the slightly cheaper prices plus no taxes make Amazon the obvious choice.

Here in Texas, random things are not taxed, like flour or some produce. But then some juice will be. Almost all the food I buy is taxed.

As a resident of Cook County, my husband and I were discussing this yesterday. Sales tax is 10.25% and then for restaurant meals, including fast food, 11.75% (which I found out when I forgot to bag my lunch yesterday).

Generally, we'll only be purchasing big ticket items in the adjacent counties from now on. We'll continue to frequent the same small, independent boutiques in our neighborhood (Logan Square) because it's important to support them but when it comes time to pick up a new computer or TV? We're DuPage County bound.

In DC where I live sales tax is 10% on hotels and restaurants. So when you go to a restaurant you are essentially adding 30% to your meal with tax and tip. I completely agree that this creates a conundrum. Do you shop locally which supports not only local business but also your city's services?
It's a little bit of a catch 22 because if everyone turns to shopping elsewhere because of the high tax rate, then they will have to raise taxes even more to get the same about of $$ back in...

@Guest:

An increase in the tax from 9.25% to 10.25% isn't a "one percent increase."  It's a 10.18% increase.  A 1% increase would have raised the rate to 9.34%.

When you go to vote this November think about this.

Government only seems to grow; they want more and more of YOUR money to spend. {What you don't give them today they borrow from your kids and force them to repay at the penalty of the loss of their liberty.}

It seems too me perfectly prudent and "thrifty" for us to demand that government live within its means and cut jobs and services and payrolls as necessary.

@ Philip- true- I obviously meant a 1% hike as the article refers to it.
I guess I just don't see why a penny on the dollar would put you in a tailspin.
A $20 top would cost $22.05 instead of $21.85- those 20cents send you running for the internet? Fine, but don't act like it's a big conundrum- if those 20c mean you won't shop locally don't pretend that you are concerned for your local merchants.

Shipping costs can be lower than taxes.  Amazon offers free super saver shipping on anything more than $25.  When my mom bought the bed she comparison shopped first and found that even with shipping the cost was lower than buying it locally. This was a $2000 bed with $150 shipping.   When you buy something locally the shipping cost is already priced in. 

This is the kind of thinking that really bothers me. How many more times will an increase happen before it's no longer acceptable? Why is there a sales tax in the first place when both the Federal and State governments take money out of your payroll? Out government has almost always tried to find new ways to pull the tax wool over our eyes. Add up everything you get taxed on, including your payroll, and you will see that we are taxed far more than you realize. Everyone accepts taxes as a "necessary evil" when they really aren't, since there were NO payroll taxes before the 1900's.

Our sales tax is 8.3%, with noplace to go but up.

However, did you know that when you buy something online you may owe something called a "use tax"?

Yes. It is the law. When you buy something from, say, Amazon.com, you are supposed to remit the amount of your state tax to the appropriate department of revenue. Quite a few state governments would like to force online retailers to report all sales to the state where stuff is shipped, so that consumers can be made to cough up the sales tax, no matter where the seller is located.

Obviously state tax authorities are not chasing down every box of paperclips you buy online. But big-ticket items can attract attention. I bought a computer from a supplier in California and, several years later, was informed that I had to remit the use tax to my state government.

Lot's of comments, but the reality is nothing will change.

As Naomi Klein said to Tom Hayden '' young people today discuss their dissent by blogging or ranting online '' and '' do you think the web is absorbing some of our outrage in a non-constructive way ? ''

Me thinks the internet has created a non-participatory America.

Yeah, complain all you want '' online '', just don't get involved in doing anything about it.

I will not support Cook County and it's retailers - consequences be damned. It's my message to the politico's who live so removed from mainstream America.

Unfortunately, I have say no. I'd shop where I could get the best price. In an ideal world, I'd support the local merchants. But I have to support my family first and especially in this economy, that means buying what is cheapest.

Thank you Chicago. Excise taxes in Tennessee are 9.035 percent. Tennesseeans for Fair Taxation last year helped get the grocery food tax knocked down one-half percent. So we are no longer the highest in the nation on excise tax.
With seven contiguous states, though, we lose a lot of tax revenue to those states.