STATEMENT OF RICHARD SOKOLOV
NGA PRESS CONFERENCE
APRIL 7, 2000


Good morning.  I am Richard Sokolov, President and Chief Operating 
Officer of Simon Property Group, the largest publicly traded retail real 
estate company in North America.  Simon Property Group owns or manages 
over 230 shopping centers in 36 states.  We employ over 5600 people and 
there are 2 billion visits to our annually.  I am also here representing 
the e-Fairness Coalition and the International Council of Shopping 
Centers…ICSC…of which I am past Chairman.  ICSC has nearly 35,000 U.S. 
members and represents almost all of the 45,000 shopping centers in the 
United States.

I am here this morning to talk about the importance of collecting sales 
tax on purchases made via the Internet.   As you know, many 
Internet-based merchants, or e-tailers, are not collecting state and 
local sales and use taxes.  This enables internet retailers to undersell 
their brick and mortar counterparts, which gives them an unfair 
advantage.  We believe that ultimately the inequity created by this 
situation could have a profound negative impact on the shopping center 
industry, our employees, our families and our communities.

In many areas, shopping centers are the social cornerstones of their 
communities.  The industry as a whole employs over 11 million people and 
in a typical month, 190 million adults shop at shopping centers.  In 
1999, shopping centers accounted for more than $1.2 trillion in retail 
sales and generated more than $47 billion in state sales tax revenue.  
This sales tax revenue funds many critical services in our cities, 
counties and states…among them schools, fire departments and police 
protection.

I also want to drive home one point clearly today…the shopping center 
industry is not afraid of the internet.  Quite to the contrary, we are 
embracing it.  In fact, most brick and mortar retailers are selling on 
the internet as well.  Similarly, many shopping center owners are 
working to incorporate the internet into their properties to allow their 
customers to have the best of both worlds.  We do not want to tax 
internet access, we are solely concerned with the sales tax issue.  It 
is simply an issue of  fairness…both to business and the consumer…that 
all sales are treated equally.  We have all seen the projected numbers. 
 Internet sales are going to continue to grow.  Without a method to 
fairly tax all purchases, indeed existing state and local revenue bases 
will soon begin to erode.   

The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce was created to find a 
solution.  In my opinion, Governor Gilmore failed as Chairman and the 
business commissioners failed the American consumers, their own 
customers, by supporting their own corporate tax breaks and not 
endorsing a level playing field for all.  

Working together, we can find that "method", that "solution"….not to 
collect a "new" tax, but to give the states the authority to collect the 
taxes they are due.   Congress can do this…it can authorize the states 
to collect the tax.  And that is why I am happy to see my own Senator 
from Ohio, Mr. Voinovich and several others here today…their leadership 
on this issue, along with that of Governor Leavitt and the other 
officials in the room, is critical to us as we educate Capitol Hill.

Thank you.