Six months after Amazon.com Inc. cut off its local marketing affiliates to protest a new state law aimed at forcing e-retailers to charge sales tax, Rhode Island and North Carolina remain the only two states whose residents are barred from the affiliate program. Nevertheless, a powerful state legislator says the law is here to stay.

Since last year, Amazon has been locked in a legal battle with New York’s government over whether the company must collect sales taxes in states where it has local marketing affiliates. But unlike in New York, where Amazon is collecting taxes as the case moves through the courts, it dropped its affiliates here when Rhode Island passed a similar law.