Maryland is the first to push an online ad tax onto the major online advertisers like Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc. Maryland will not be the first and it sounds as though they will not be the last.

MultiState, a government relations firm that tracks local legislatures, says it is eyeing at least 17 bills in 10 states that aim to impose taxes on tech giants, their profits, the data they collect and the services they offer.

Although these funds may provide some short term relief to budget shortfalls or in this case to a good cause like education…I fear the cost will ultimately be paid by the end consumer through higher overall pricing of products and services. We all know there is no such thing as free shipping. So called “free shipping” is built into the cost of the product you buy and a large portion of these new taxes will too.