The third quarter of 2011 marks the seventh consecutive quarter of revenue increases, according to Rockefeller Institute (in the fiscal year through June 2011, states posted their strongest revenue growth figures since 2005), though local government tax revenues are weak due to heavy dependence on property taxes.

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The sales tax on such sales may remain local, as might a small cut of these revenues.

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Previously the French government has considered introducing a tax on online advertising revenues but it later dropped the plan, worried it would hurt small local companies more than global internet giants.

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Not only is this activity funded privately, it also generates additional tax revenues to state, local and federal coffers instead of losing tax payer money on heavily subsidized solar and wind-energy projects.

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Looking a bit like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates when standing together, the two have seemed in philosophical agreement on major themes like disempowering central government bureaucracies in favor of local control, increasing the local tax base with consumption tax revenues, and free trade (support for TPP).

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