EDITORIAL FABLED LOGIC INTERNET TAX COULD KILL CALIFORNIA'S GOOSE THAT LAID GOLDEN EGGS.

ONCE upon a time, the golden state of California had it all: a thriving economy, bountiful natural resources and rich intellectual capital - not to mention miles of stunning, smoke-free beaches and smog-free mountains.

All of this was important to the state's health. But best of all was the state's booming technology industry, particularly its Internet businesses, which brought the state great wealth.

Then, one day, some of the lords of California had a foolish idea: ``We will squeeze the Internet businesses and get all the gold now so that we can continue to spend the state's dollars recklessly for our own benefit and the benefit of our friends.''

But the squeeze on the Internet business was too hard, and it snapped the industry's neck, chased it away to other states and nations, as it did the film industry before that. Afterward, there was no more gold for California from that particular source, and it was bad.

If this story sounds familiar, that's because it's adapted from Aesop's famous fable about how greed destroys: The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg. It's a story that California legislators would have been wise to consider before supporting the foolish idea of trying to get residents to pay sales tax on Internet and out-of-state purchases.

For starters, the tax is unenforceable. It relies on taxpayers voluntarily reporting purchases on their annual state income tax return, and then shelling out for the sales tax they didn't pay throughout the year. That means keeping track of every book ordered online and every hooded sweat shirt purchased while vacationing in Montana. Who has the time or the motivation to do that?

Evidently, not many people, as only about 12,000 taxpayers - one of every 1,000 - fessed up to their purchases. The goal of the first year of pseudo-enforcement was to raise $13 million. But with two-thirds of this year's returns processed, only $766,000 were reported. That probably doesn't even cover the money spent on the salaries of those trying to enforce the law, or the time and cost of the legislation and printing new tax forms.

Besides, there's no incentive. Californians are already heavily taxed on every dollar earned. Why would we go out of our way to cough up even more?

The tax is also constitutionally suspect. The U.S. Constitution says interstate commerce laws are set by the federal government, not by the state of California.

This tax is just a bad idea all around. It's unenforceable, arguably unconstitutional and good for nothing more than turning most taxpaying Californians into criminals.

If state lawmakers want to keep the state's lucrative Internet goose alive, they should consider making it more attractive to do business online, rather than less so. Otherwise, the current nearsighted approach could eventually strangle the growing industry to death.