Amazon ^[1] has locked horns with the State of California over a referendum that would require the online retailer to collect state sales tax. California has been exploring ways to collect sales tax from online retailers as the state struggles to balance its budget. Unpaid taxes have been estimated at a growing $1.2 billion this year by the state’s Board of Equalization.

Evan Westrup, a spokesman for California Governor Jerry Brown, took aim at Amazon’s attempts to collect signatures to block the sales tax bill, asking, “Where does Amazon plan to collect these signatures – in front of bricks and mortar retailers that collect sales tax every day?”

Last month ^[2], Amazon tried to make a jobs-for-taxed swap when Texas handed them a bill for $269 million in taxes.

Read more at The New York Times ^[3].