OT: How to replace sliding glass door latch?

I think they understand it, they just assume they're still on the left side of the peak! :-)

But other than public outcry, there's nothing that prevents them from just not having enough budget for their expenditures and then procedding to hand out IOUs, is there?

Then they aren't talking to the people. If you have a business you've got to keep it honest. But people have told me that they went into a local store, looked at plasma TVs, liked one, left the store, then scoured the Internet for a good deal. If they then skirt the sales tax they can easily save $100-$200 just because of that. And that's some real money. I saw a similar effect in WA state a long time ago. Sky high sales taxes even back then. So, every weekend people would get together and cruise down to Portland in a huge van or truck. There they'd buy major appliances, TVs, stereos, jewelry and so on because Oregon has no sales tax. The challenge was to figure the weight of all this stuff and not overload the vehicle. This has a ripple effect. The missed sales tax on a big gizmo is one thing but they also lost the business/income taxes based on the profit on that gizmo that was now not sold.

That backfires. People are already very careful about not overpaying estimated state tax too much because they don't trust them. There have been times when the state was tardy there and people remember that for a long, long time. Many people hope that numerous municipalities go belly up so they can get out from underneath those unfair pension obligations. The state can't do that, so aside from a bailout they can then only shrink the bureaucratic apparatus. Which is usually a good thing.

Don't insult drunken Sailors!

Drunken sailors quit spending when they run out of their own money.

It's all the pot smoke from the Liberals.

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They never have. Look how many millionaires are moving out of NYC. CA is right behind.

I thought it was a simple majority for spending and a 2/3s super-majority for budgeting. The obvious answer is borrowing. The news had them going to the bank for $14B the other day. They're still spending.

Nah, I knew some who began to hit up their buddies for money at that point. In fact, somehow they seemed to always be short of money.

That happens all the time with border communities, for things as small as a tank of gas. It's no accident that all the stores on the VT-NH border are on the NH side. The biggest thing on the VT side is a quickie-mart.

NY did that thirty years ago. The first time it was threatened (they didn't actually do it for a couple of years) was the last time I've ever had a refund. I make sure I owe taxes on 4/15 (last year was a little much, admittedly).

I don't see any evidence of that happening. Do you? Now with Governor MoonBeam, well, I'm not buying it.

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All but a couple of my clients are now out of state. That is also a phenomenon politicians are unable or unwilling to understand. I can work for those companies from here but regular employees can't, they must move. Meaning the tax base erodes beyond corporate taxes.

oblivion.

Yup. Some day the investors won't give them any more money. So they can't spend. Seriously, that is what people out here are thinking. Pretty sad.

This was not border town stuff, these were people from north of Seattle. That is one long drive to Oregon.

Well, he may simply run out of money and then that's that. Good thing is, they can't raise taxes and fees anymore without GOP approval and that sure ain't gonna happen.

They can only do that a couple times before no one will loan them money. I made sure I didn't have any to loan. As soon as I bought what I needed for the month and anything I wanted, I bought money orders and mailed them home for my family to deposit in my savings account.

I take your point here, but are you aware that technically if you buy something mail order you're supposed to then pay your own state the sales tax on it? Same with driving to Portland from Washington -- technically you're supposed to pay back Washington the sales tax.

Of course, no one actually does this. That's one of the reasons the politicians are working so hard to get all Internet transactions taxed...

Note that this works in reverse as well: If I buy something in Vancouver, WA but actually reside in Oregon, if I fill out the appropriate paperwork I can get the sales tax that Washington collected back. I have a friend who knew a guy who lived in Oregon but wanted to get married in Washington, and he did this as his wedding cost some thousands of dollars -- enough to really matter. Similarly, the Vancouver auto dealers often make it a point in their ads that Oregonians don't end up paying sales tax to try to attract people in Portland.

Even if there weren't any sales taxes, places like Amazon.Com are often going to be able to steeply undercut local retailers anyway -- the cost of getting a brick & mortar storefront going is not cheap anywhere.

Good!

Well, and even when the pensions aren't fair -- in the sense that they're far more generous than anything in private industry and hence never should have been approved -- it wouldn't be right to strip the retirees of them completely anyway. Two wrongs don't make a right...

Agreed. The tricky part is always deciding *where* to make those cuts...

---Joel

But they're not going to go that far to save on gas prices. ;-)

They'll spend IOUs. They've done that before.

Internet transactions aren't special. The only way to fix this is for the states to recognize each other's taxes. Why would a state with no sales tax comply?

Sure, but taxes on cars are generally payable in the state they're registered in. Otherwise it's up to the state. Some won't refund the taxes paid.

Sure. I find more and more eTailers are offering free or almost free shipping, sometimes with nominal orders ($25 to $100).

A full pension after 20 years and sometimes less than 50YP is nuts. We were talking with one of my wife's friends a while back. She's a retired (upstate) NY teacher with, I think, 25 years service. She gets 80% of her final salary. If she retired with 32 years, I think it was, it would be 100%. Her final salary was >$80K, as a school librarian.

As I see it, the bankruptcy courts are going to be the decider in chief.

Good point.

The other states will likely offer to pay them to do so, I suppose.

The "ship to store" model that, e.g., Wal*Mart and Target has works well, I think. One of the biggest complaints you here about eTailers is that you have to pay return postage if you receive a defective item or change your mind, and most people would rather pay $1 in gas and their drive time to return something at a B&M store rather than ship it back via USPS or similar.

Although I've heard recently some of these "ship to store" places no longer accept returns at the B&M store, which won't encourage consumers any.

Incredible. Definitely should never have been passed!

Hmm, yes, I think you're right...

---Joel

I don't see that happening. Perhaps the feds can open up banking records to the states?

Sure. Ship to a residence avoids that nasty sales tax thing. ;-) Amazon and many clothing eTailers pay return shipment. I don't buy from those who don't. Clothing sizes are just too variable.

I buy a *lot* online, though other than shoes (stores don't carry my size), no clothes.

That's typical. That's the problem.

Agreed. Clearly the prices have to increase a bit to cover the costs of returns, but with the variability of clothing it makes sense to build that into the purchase price.

I've read that on Amazon even for "regular" items (you pay return shipping), if you return too many items they start sending you polite notes suggesting that perhaps you could spend a little more time researching an item before purchasing it? (Where the precise definitinon of "too many" is probably known only to a very select chunk of Amazon management... but I bet it's rather higher than most people would assume...)

---Joel

Never had a single problem returning an item to Amazon. Of course there were only two items in many years ;-) ...Jim Thompson

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Right, I would guess it wouldn't raise any flags at Amazon until you're returning, say, 10%+ of what you order...

I probably average 1 or 2 items returned per year. Although I've tried ordering laptop cases off of Amazon twice now and returned them each time... I guess laptop cases are likes clothes: Even with known dimensions, you just can't tell how well they'll fit until you have one in-hand to try.

The only thing I've returned to Amazon is a router table top. I was split in half. They'd better take it back. ;-) They didn't have a replacement. I still haven't found one. :-(

I'm debating whether to send a Zappos (Amazon, I know) package back. THe shoes don't fit quite right, but there aren't a lot of choices.