California mulls text tax on mobile messages

CBS news ^ | 12/12/18 | Kate Gibson

[NoLibZone]

Californians may or may not type OMG at the news, but texting may soon come with an extra fee on their mobile phone bills. State regulators are weighing a tax on the popular communications tool to help fund a program that makes phone service available to low-income residents.

A texting surcharge could help sustain the Public Purpose Program budget, which has risen to $998 million in 2017 from $670 million in 2011, according to a report from the California Public Utilities Commission. Revenue from the telecom industry that funds the program has declined to $11.3 billion last year from $16.5 billion in 2011, the CPUC report stated.

"From a consumer's point of view, surcharges may be a wash, because if more surcharge revenues come from texting services, less would be needed from voice services," a CPUC spokesperson told the newspaper in a statement.

[rollo tomasi]

You can text all you want, however, once you hit send, all bets are off legally since it goes through several other independent channels at your convenience.

[monkeyshine]

Fine. If this passes I will propose a California initiative to tax Facebook and Twitter posts.