CA - Taxes on Test Messaging Proposed to Help Poor People Get Phones

It may become more expensive to send text messages on mobile phones in California due to the proposed increase in fees so that in turn poor people may get phones easier. That is, should the proposal of California regulators get the nod of the state Public Utilities Commission which will vote on the matter next month.

It remains unclear for now how much more money individual consumers would be ordered to pay their wireless carriers for texting services under the new proposed measure. It is likely, though, that they would be billed as a flat surcharge, instead of a fee per text.

Getting an approval for the suggestion may not be a smooth-sailing ride, however, as the wireless industry and business groups are determined to fight and defeat the proposal.

Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council business-sponsored advocacy group bemoaned the proposal. He said: “It’s a dumb idea. This is how conversations take place in this day and age and it’s almost like saying there should be a tax on the conversations we have.”

Wunderman also argued that as far as he knows, other local, state or federal program do not tax texting. The wireless industry also insists that the state commission lacks legal ground to make such a proposal.

The business groups involved estimate that the new proposed charges for wireless consumers could total around $44.5 million a year. Under the regulators’ proposal, the charge could be applied retroactively for five years and could roughly total to a bill of more than $220 million for California consumers.

The CPUC report says that adding fees on text messaging will increase the revenue base that funds programs that in turn provide assistance to low-income Californians afford phone service.

However, the Public Purpose Program is facing some challenges. Their budget has grown from $670 million in 2011 to $998 million last year. The telecommunication industry revenues, however, that fund the program fell from $16.5 billion in 2011 to $11.3 billion in 2017.

The proposal is also met with disapproval and disdain by social media users, describing the measure as essentially another liberal unreasonable, if not outright, stupid idea.

How would this work? Do they get free texting with there poverty phones? Go to the phone bank like they would a food bank? What would this look like? Just another money grab for the government that's all this is.

— Steve Cook Belyea (@belyea_cook) December 14, 2018

What a joke

— J G (@bronx_bombers99) December 14, 2018

LIBERETARDISM....IS REAL!!!!

— Phil Caruana (@CaruanaJr) December 14, 2018

Source:

https://nypost.com/2018/12/13/california-considers-texting-tax-to-help-poor-people-get-phones/

[tw_tags] #MAGA #KAG #California #TaxtingTextMessaging #PhoneServiceForThePoor [/tw_tags]

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