Digital ad tax is anti-business

This is in response to “CT bill could raise $250M a year by taxing digital ads on Twitter, Facebook and Google” published March 8 in the Connecticut Post.

It’s clear that Reps Cheeseman, Scanlon and Meskers don’t understand how digital advertising works and what types of businesses rely on it. The type of ads they want to tax are the lifeblood of small businesses. Digital ads that run on Twitter, Facebook, Google and other platforms are affordable and efficient, thereby offering small businesses a way to communicate their messages, market their goods and services, and achieve a respectable return on their advertising investment. Virtually any size business can easily start advertising on these platforms with a minimal investment. The investment needed to kick-start a digital advertising campaign is significantly smaller than it would be on other media platforms, so small businesses and startups increasingly rely on digital advertising to attract a continuous stream of customers.

Rep. Meskers’ comment shows his lack of knowledge about how digital advertising works and who it benefits. When Meskers says “We suffer a lot, the more we aggregate economic activity on the internet…,” he seems to be suggesting that digital ads only drive sales to online merchants. This is incorrect. He doesn’t take into account the huge number of locally owned and operated businesses, including some of our most beloved local Main Street businesses, that are taking advantage of the benefits of digital adverting to drive sales, thereby generating increased sales tax revenue for the state.

Any additional tax on these businesses will be passed along to their customers, thereby putting them at a competitive disadvantage and driving more consumers to online alternatives like Amazon. This is clearly an anti-business tax. Increasingly, digital advertising is the spark plug of our local economy. Let’s not saddle local businesses with yet another tax, especially during this time when many are hanging on by a thread. Bob Abbate

President Bob Abbate Marketing