I thought Obama took care of all that years ago ...
Posted on 12/12/2018 9:52:00 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Have you found yourself texting people instead of calling them? Sure. Have you stopped to debate whether texting is a form of “telecommunications” or an “information service?” Chances are the answer is “no”.
California’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is betting you haven’t either — and the difference matters because the commission has jurisdiction over telecommunications, which includes telephone calls. What’s more, it wants to extend an existing tax on calls to include text messages, the Mercury News reports.
Should it get its way, then Californians may soon be taxed on every text they send from their cell phones.
Gather round, millennials and Generation Z, to learn about the landline era, when the U.S. federal government and states established so-called Public Purpose Programs. These programs charged all users of telephone services a surcharge that subsidized programs for lower earners. They also apply to other utilities such as electricity and natural gas. During the rise of the Internet, however, the telecoms industry managed to get an exemption for “information services” such as web browsing and email.
As mobile phone users have shifted their usage patterns away from voice calls, voice call revenues for PPP have dropped by about a third, while the budget for subsidizing poorer users has risen by almost half. So California’s PUC is exploring its options and, as texts share infrastructure with voice calls — even if the medium is different — it estimates it could raise $44.5 million a year with the change. Applied retroactively it could amount to a bill of more than $220 million for California consumers.
In response, the telecoms industry is filing complaints arguing that texting is an email-like “information service” and should be exempt from PPP. The FCC is meeting today to address the issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
Something that might finally turn millennials away from Democrats?
This is a tax on free speech.
It will not pass Constitutional muster...............
-—another “agency” to add to the list—
https://patriotpost.us/pages/256-list-of-state-of-california-agencies
This is where socialism goes. Tax the hell out of everything we do, and give fascism, filth and chaos in return.
Public union pensions will be paid.
That is all you really need to know.
Apologies to The Police and Sting
Every text you make
Every breath you take
I will be watching you ... annnd
I will be taxing you .. You.. YOUUUUU!!!
california is a boobocracy built on a puddle of quicksand and policies that most would call insane.
... If we had a SCOTUS that followed the constitution. If recent days are any indication, I wouldn't bet on them overturning any tax California put forth.
How do I invest in yellow vest makers?
If they’re already taxing voice calls (and apparently getting away with it), wouldn’t that also be a tax on free speech?
More Marxist redistribution of wealth. In today’s world, we call it....
**** BUYING VOTES FROM A DEPENDENCY CLASS ****
That is the next step. Tax the oxygen you inhale. Tax the CO2 you exhale.
Too many taxes
Too many laws
If that’s the case, they will text phone calls by the minute.
Doxx the cell numbers of Politicos and family members. Text them each about a million times.
It’s a communications tax. Has nothing to do with free speech. Thank bam my friends this. He opened the door by taxing health care.
Ronald Reagan — Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
There are plenty of taxes on your phone already and those have somehow passed muster.
In fact my cell phone bill is about 20-25% taxes and fees.
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