Covid may be a change agent in a wide variety of arenas in addition to being a deadly virus.

For years, the taxing of internet sales has gone nowhere. Bills would be introduced only to die in committee.

Some Republican legislators took the position that taxing products that were bought on the internet would be tantamount to a tax increase. It was fine to pay tax if you bought the item from a local retailer, but if it was shipped from Way Fair, collecting sales tax was verboten. The law stated that the buyer was obligated to remit the sales tax to the state, but how many of us ever did that?

Along comes Covid and in store sales dropped resulting in less tax revenue for the state. Now Tallahassee is looking to make up some lost money. Florida may finally join the majority of other states and begin having online merchants collect sales tax. It is about time that internet sales are on a level playing field with the brick-and-mortar merchant.

Another part of the Covid crisis is school enrollment. In Martin County, we are fortunate that there are only about 20 students who are unaccounted for since Covid hit. But that does not mean that district enrollment is down by only that many students. It is significantly more. Statewide there are 87,000 kids unaccounted for. Poof…they are gone!

School districts receive a fixed amount of money for each student registered in the district. If kids are no longer enrolled in your school district, then the amount of money the district has available to spend is less. If you lose approximately 600 students to Florida Virtual, home schooling, or private schools, suddenly some teachers are no longer needed. Special programs are cut. Music and art become casualties along with other so-called extras.

The state will pretend that those 87,000 kids are still there this year for funding allocations but that is a one-shot deal. Our educational system may be in for a shake-up going forward. There is a broad Republican consensus in Tallahassee that other ways to educate children should be tried. Vouchers are leading the way for choice in education.

Another never changing issue just might change. Employer and business liability for actions has been broadened over the years. In many instances, businesses did ignore worker safety and the public good. An entire industry of tort litigation has grown larger and larger with each passing year.

Of course, that allows for businesses and professions to be held responsible for their actions. It also makes everything more expensive. From doctors to real estate agents to drug manufacturers and everyone else, there is always now a presumption by them that you can be sued so act defensively.

The latest fear are businesses being sued by customers and employees if they contract Covid. How you would ever prove where someone caught it would be

difficult. But an absence of proof never stopped someone from initiating a lawsuit. And defending a lawsuit is expensive…even frivolous ones.

The legislature has bills in both the House and Senate erecting barriers to allowing individuals to claim that they contracted Covid at a particular business or non-profit. Maybe this is the beginning of tort reform. I certainly hope so. Most people believe that the “sue for anything and everything” legal bar needs to be reformed.

A crisis such as Covid can be useful in reforming things that would never change without prodding. I hope that reform is perceived as making our lives better. It should be something that allows for society to change and improve. I hope we see more of it and not just protectionism and cronyism masquerading as true reform.