State Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, says you don’t have to look much further than local malls to see the impact of internet commerce. “The malls are getting creamed on the ground,” he says.

But he hopes changing Florida law to require e-commerce to charge sales tax the same as retailers serving customers at cash registers helps.

“It’s one of my biggest bills of the session, one of my top priorities,” he says. “I’m trying to create a level playing field for Main Street and everywhere else.”

Merchants in traditional brick-and-mortar shops for years have complained that internet giants like Amazon can both undercut costs by keeping overhead low and don’t have to charge sales taxes.

Graters notes, though, that a 2018 Supreme Court ruling in fact says consumers still owe tax even if it’s not charged at point of sale.

That’s why he argues charging sales tax on e-commerce doesn’t constitute a tax increase. Rather than try and hunt down consumers to shake down owed taxes, he wants it collected when purchases get made.

That already happens in states like New York, Illinois and Massachusetts, places that already charge more in taxes than Florida.

This isn’t the first year Gruters filed this type of legislation. It failed to get support last year, despite Gruters serving as chair of the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee. But he filed it as a revenue neutral bill before.

Now, he hopes to get the legislation through in part because his bill offers no direction on where to spend additional state revenue that comes in. That means an estimated $750 million could be raised in state coffers. Leaders in the Legislature could divert that to education, environmental spending or any number of other politically popular causes.

“It’s fair to the consumers and it’s making a convenience to the consumers to do the right thing on their behalf,” he says.