State regulators say surcharge on text messaging would help fund programs

San Jose Mercury ^ | December 12, 2018 | John Woolfolk

[artichokegrower]

Texting your sweetheart that you’re on your way home? California may soon charge you for that.

[jeffc]

Liberals always look at things through a static lens: Tax texts and people will stop texting and start calling...

[ealgeone]

the problem though....is the virus is spreading.

libs hate spending their own money....they just want to spend your money.

[CptnObvious]

CalaTaxachussetts.

[BBB333]

“Politicians say more taxes will solve EVERYTHING” - ‘Ball Of Confusion’ by The Temptations, 1971.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmRsWdK0PRI

47 years later...

[chris37]

No, my sweetie is texting me.

Not the other way around.

And California is going to make the women folk real angry if they tax their little texty phones.

[Blood of Tyrants]

“But they add that under the regulators’ proposal the charge could be applied retroactively for five years”

I guess that pesky prohibition against ex post facto laws doesn’t apply to taxes disguised as “fees”.

[EagleUSA]

Marxism, liberalism, and outright theft. Tax and spend with no end or limits — welcome to our tyrannical, one-party state. Buying control, votes and a dependency class.

[taxcontrol]

Ok folks, lets use the proper term. It is not a “surcharge”, it is a TAX.

[Fiji Hill]

I say go for it. Millennials text all the time. They vote for guess who? Screw them. They can learn the hard way.

This won't affect me all that much. I find texting to be tedious and slow with my flip phone and only send out a few texts per year. However, millennials, who voted these politicians in, will be hit hardest.

[Flick Lives]

California: The world’s largest insane asylum.

- -

Yes, indeed it is. The real trick will be to NOT let FedGov bail out the MFs when the state goes bankrupt.

[alexander_busek]

Notice the weasel word "may". If you are the one person in a hundred who calls rather than texts you might pay less in taxes. Maybe.

I have one question: What is texting? I mean: Am I "texting" right now, for instance?

Or am I that one person in a hundred? (But I don't have a mobile phone, either.)

Regards,

[ProtectOurFreedom]

So the case for the surcharge is that the "Public Purpose Program" budget has climbed from $670 million in 2011 to $998 million last year

You know, I just cannot see any other way out of this problem other than raising taxes. Nope, not a single other way to solve this. It's a real conundrum it is.

[PGR88]

Its time for a yellow-vest protest in California

[TexasGator]

You didn’t read the article.

[z3n]

Welfare stares need warm bodies to keep their House seats. In their infinite lack of wisdom, states are replacing fleeing makers with takers. Which will not end well for welfare states or the folks sucking off their teats.

~~~

But that’s why we have the federal government.
Are states too big to fail?
California has a huge economy.
They believe they can do anything they want and silicone valley and their huge aggricultural exports will save them, and it probably will still, for quite some time. It has before. And when it doesn’t,... they will cry that the tax burden needs to be shared more with the rest of the country.

[SkyDancer]

Wasn’t there an urban legend going around how the USPS would be taxing email at five cents each?

[Drew68]

You didn’t read the article.

You mean the part how it'll be a flat fee on everyone's phone bill and not actually a tax on individual text messages?

[csvset]

If California wants the poor to have phone, convince, (or force), the faggot that runs Apple to give them away. Problem solved.

[FatherofFive]

Charge for oxygen used and then for the CO2 exhaled. Perfect

[Meadow Muffin]

California is using this proposal as a straw man....if it passes then the next tax will be on taking a dump. They are trying to figure out if the crap should be taken to a local tax office and weighed, then apply the tax, or just charge a flat rate.