DeLeo: I want to see local businesses thrive and not get eaten up by an unfair playing field. #MainStFairness #Retailers

He doesn't quit thinking about ways to grow "brick and morter" jobs according to this report in the Herald business section.  The Retailers are doing a good job branding this as Main St Fairness.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo was sympathetic to a room full of Bay State retailers yesterday, but the Winthrop Democrat stopped short of endorsing a proposal to tax their competition: online retailers.

“I want to let you folks know that I heard you loudly,” DeLeo told members of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts at a luncheon at Bentley University. “It’s something I’m going to analyze very carefully.”

The retail trade group supports legislation to require out-of-state online retailers such as Amazon to collect sales taxes on Bay State purchases. But DeLeo, who said he never buys online, isn’t so sure he’s ready to adopt the tax.

“I’m not a new tax guy,” DeLeo told the Herald. “But I’m hearing from lots of retailers who feel they’re at a disadvantage. I want to see local businesses thrive and not get eaten up by an unfair playing field. But right now I am in no way endorsing this measure.”

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said support for the so-called Main Street Fairness law is essential to level the playing field.

“We either have to apply the law for online sales or remove it from brick-and-mortar retailers,” Hurst said.