A coming blow for state budgets?

• Position: TRENDS AND TRANSITIONS

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A new technology, now moving from industry to the home, has the potential to reduce sales tax revenue much more than the personal computer, the internet and e-commerce ever did. With e-commerce, the transactions exist to be taxed. With the new technology--3D printing--they do not.

Known as rapid-prototyping or fabbing, 3D printing can be used to make replacement parts for appliances, children's toys and sandals, decorative switch plates, coat hooks, or a thousand other items. "Once consumers have 3D printers, they will have a China on their desktop, and they won't be spending nearly as much money at the local hardware store or Wal-Mart," says Thomas Easton, professor of science at Thomas College in Maine. His forthcoming book, The 3D Printing Revolution: Social and Economic Impacts, explores the new technology.

Current 3D printers, such as that from Desktop Factory, cost just under $5,000 (compared to $20,000 just two years ago). They work by building objects--up to 5 inches on a side--one thin layer at a time from plastic powder fused by intense light. The machines easily fit on desktops and weigh less than 90 lbs. The technology, according to its proponents...