Well that didn’t take long…House Speaker Mark Ferrandino is openly talking about a plan to tax internet transactions here in Colorado.

Got Amazon? 

Like Groupon?

Prefer to buy your jeans from GAP online?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, the Durango Herald reports this morning that a secret plan is underway to ensure that those web stops will cost just a little more:

DENVER – Cities such as Durango, Cortez and Pagosa Springs will have to give up some of their sales-tax powers if Colorado is to be able to tax Internet purchases, a senior lawmaker said Thursday.

Speaker of the House Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, said city and state officials have been working quietly for about a year to figure out how to harmonize the way they collect sales taxes.

A bill in Congress known as the Marketplace Fairness Act would allow states to tax Internet sales from out-of-state businesses, but only if they make it easy for retailers by letting the state be the sole tax collector and creating a common list of items taxed.

…The state already collects taxes for its 64 counties and many towns, but home-rule cities such as Durango can collect their own taxes and set their own list of items that are taxed. And they’re not in a hurry to give up that power.

…Legislators – chiefly Democrats – have been trying to tax Internet sales for several years. An “Amazon tax” bill from 2010 was thrown out in federal court when Internet businesses sued.

When it comes to internet taxation in Colorado, who can forget the infamous John Morse meltdown video where he sneers at the “tyranny” of Amazon.com (check it out after the jump)?

While much of what happens down at the Colorado Legislature is small ball legislation that rarely attracts the attention of the greater public, when it comes to things like taxing the internet, regular folk tend to perk up and pay a little more attention.

In this case, it’s not just consumers that stand to lose out, but home-rule cities as well.