The AFT Revenue and Taxation Task Force is urging union leaders, members and staff to support efforts at the state and federal levels to allow for the collection of taxes on Internet sales.

The task force's report, State Revenue and Taxation: Issues for Supporting Public Service in the 21st Century, was released as debate in Washington, D.C., over the taxation of e-commerce intensified. Though the three-year congressional ban barring states and localities from imposing new taxes on e-commerce transactions was set to expire Oct. 21, legislation (H.R. 1552) is under consideration to extend the moratorium through 2006. State and local governments, according to the General Accounting Office, lost an estimated $9.1 billion in sales-tax revenues in 2000 as a result of the moratorium.

The AFT, joined by several other AFL-CIO-affiliated unions, has been working aggressively to dissuade members of Congress from extending the moratorium, particularly at a time when state governments are experiencing drastic downward fluctuations in their treasuries, threatening public services--and jobs. Unions are not the only groups opposed to the moratorium. Thirty-two states are involved in formal, multistate discussions about simplifying their sales-tax systems to allow for uniform taxation of e-commerce.

For-profit education ventures leveling off

Last year, it looked like education companies were the financial world's latest great sensation. The first half of 2000 brought a record-breaking $1.8 billion in private equity invested in education firms, says Eduventures, a research firm that tracks financial markets.

The first half of 2001, however, saw that level of investment drop by 69 percent--to $558 million. In place of start-ups, companies went in the direction of mergers and acquisitions to keep afloat. Eduventures says that the 35 merger and acquisitions in the second quarter of this year are a significant jump over the same period last year.

No escape from pop-up/pop-under ads

Cruising the information highway is becoming more of an ordeal these days as advertisers pull out all the stops to draw in customers. No sooner were faculty and students learning to tolerate banner ads crowding out content at the top of each site than ad agencies designed a new device to get your attention--pop-under ads. These are Web sites that lurk under your main Internet screens on the computer and jump out at you after you think you've left the Web. The only way to get rid of them is to interact with them.

Even though a market research company found that 73 percent of consumers have a strong negative reaction to pop-under ads, they do result in greater name recognition for the products that are advertised. That's why you won't see them go away anytime soon, according to the Sept. 10 issue of Trend Letter.