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Maryland Affiliates – Fight Senate Bill 1071 Today

Posted by Shawn Collins on April 6th, 2009 | 0 Comments

Affiliate marketers in Maryland need to take action right away to have their voices heard against Senate Bill 1071.

It is critical that you contact State Senators from your county. There is no time to waste – the key committee will meet sometime this week to vote. Contact your Maryland legislators starting today. Here is a short plan of action…

WHAT TO SAY

  1. Who you are, where you live and any ties to the community your business or nonprofit has;
  2. What an affiliate is and how advertising fits into you business plan;
  3. State, if true, “advertising from out of state sources is a significant revenue to our business or non profit” (give numbers or percentages if appropriate);
  4. You know out of state advertisers will stop working with you (cite what happened to affiliates in New York);
  5. Maryland already has a bad national reputation in the tech community because of the “tech tax” (imposing the sales tax on computer services) issue in 2007 and 2008. This will only make that reputation worse.
  6. Be sure to say “I need you to oppose SB 1071. Can I count on you to be against this bad legislation?”
  7. Ask “would you please call me or e-mail me later this week with an update on the status of SB 1071?”
  8. Please summarize your contact to you in an e-mail to me, so I can help coordinate efforts.

WHO TO CONTACT

All politics are local, so you need to contact Senators from your county. Go to http://mdelect.net/electedofficials/ to find your State Senator.

You need to enter your address and the State Senator’s name will appear as a hyperlink on the left. Click through and it will show their contact information.

Most important is that members of the State Senate Budget and Taxation Committee are contacted, as well as the President of the Senate, Thomas “Mike” Miller. See and share the list of those State Senators with their counties.

Any organizations with over 100 employees should contact Patrick H. Roddy, Esq. directly, so he can use your opposition effectively. Mr. Roddy is working with AOL in the effort against SB 1071.

Please spread the word with any affiliate marketers you know in Maryland and post a link here on Twitter, your blog, etc.

UPDATE:

Amazon sent a letter to Senator Currie in Maryland about their opposition to SB 1071 and an ultimatum to pull their affiliate program from Maryland.

See the letter at http://www.jangro.com/a/2009/04/09/amazons-letter-to-maryland-senator-currie/

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