For the past 2 weeks I have been in communication with the California Taxpayers Association who along with the California Chamber of Commerce has formed a coalition to lobby against California AB 178, a proposed new law that is similar to the New York “Amazon” tax. Major corporations and trade associations in the music and electronics industry are involved in the coalition to lobby against this bill. Joining forces with them is our best chance of fighting this, as these players are much bigger and have more clout than our little industry.

CalTax reached out to me, the PMA and several other industry leaders, so now the affiliate marketing industry has our own joint coalition led by the PMA, our industry association. Our point person is Beth Kirsch, formerly a federal lobbyist.

Among the affiliate marketing coalition’s plans are letter writing campaigns, a lobby day at the capitol on March 31 and mobilizing people to testify before the Revenue & Tax Committee on April 13.

Rebecca at the PMA asked me to re-blog this, so here are more details and a call to action for anyone in CA to get involved to help fight this important fight.

The Fight Against California Assembly Bill 178 California Bill 178 threatens to change the performance marketing playing field. If you are a publisher or agency whose business is in California, your livelihood is at risk.

This bill, copying a similar one in New York, unfairly categorizing publishers as sales presence for out-of-state advertisers. This means taxes will be levied on out-of-state advertisers, potentially causing them to shut down their publisher relationships in the state (it happened in New York). Learn more at The Performance Marketing Alliance.

With your help, we have a great chance to kill this bill: the PMA is working with the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Taxpayers Association lobbying groups to fight this bill. These groups have successfully killed similar bills in the past, but the difference now is the precedent set by New York state. They believe the only way this bill can be killed is to have a coordinated grass-roots effort that demonstrates the devastating effect this bill will have on performance marketers in California.

With the support of CalChamber and CalTax, PMA is launching a coordinated grass-roots campaign that targets state legislature representatives. We are developing an attack plan that includes sample letters, fact sheets, congressional contacts by zip code, and a “Visit Sacramento” day, to put faces in front of decision makers.

First step: The PMA is extremely fortunate to have the support and experience of Beth Kirsch, a well known industry leader who was formerly a federal lobbyist. She is leading our effort, but we need your help. We are looking for California performance marketers to get involved. The most seriously impacted are California publishers and OPMs.

We don’t have much time – we have until March 31st to make an impact.

As we learned from our colleagues in New York, the passage of this bill could have devastating effects on California performance marketers. If this passes in California, it virtually assures a firestorm of adoption by other states, which could devastate our entire industry. If we beat this bill, it will severely limit the adoption in other states.

Email me (rebecca AT performancemarketingalliance.com) if you are interested in helping with the fight. At the very least, please forward this link to your Californian friends.

For background information on this bill, please read this post.