As I read this story, I thought I’d found something I could agree with Del. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem). Why shouldn’t newspapers be subject to the same BPOL tax as other businesses? And let’s face it, newspapers are businesses first. Keepers of first amendment rights is somewhere down the list. But then I read
Griffith said his bill does not apply to broadcast media, partly because “the broadcast media hasn’t been asking us to raise taxes.” He also said broadcasters are not “filling up landfills” as discarded newspapers do.
Griffith acknowledged that some will question his motives and accuse him of using the legislative process to settle a score with the newspaper.
“Certainly people can say that,” he said. “But all I did was take the same arguments they’ve made during the last year, two years, three years, five years and apply them to their industry.”
And, Griffith added: “If they’re intellectually honest, they will have to support this.”
Well, if you were intellectually honest, Mo, well, you wouldn’t be Mo.