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Thread: California considers text messaging tax to fund cell service for low-income residents

  1. #1

    California considers text messaging tax to fund cell service for low-income residents

    California considers text messaging tax to fund cell service for low-income residents
    California may soon charge its residents a fee for text messaging, according to a report released by state regulators Tuesday.

    The report from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) says the tax on text messaging would likely be a flat fee added to a monthly bill instead of a per text tax and the money would be used to fund programs that make phone service available for low-income residents.
    ...
    The report outlines the shrinking revenue coming from a current tax on the telecommunications industry and argues that a new tax on text messaging should be put in place to make up for it.
    ...
    More: https://thehill.com/policy/technolog...ervice-for-low
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

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    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.



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  3. #2
    I repeatedly see that some 60-80% (all the way up to 90%) of homeless individuals have cellphones; I believe 83% of the population has a cellphone. It's very very difficult to find a family or group-unit of people living together that doesn't have at least one.

    This seems a bit unnecessary, to be honest.

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Fox McCloud View Post
    This seems a bit unnecessary, to be honest.
    The good news is that it might push people to use more secure messaging apps, that are tax free.

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by specsaregood View Post
    The good news is that it might push people to use more secure messaging apps, that are tax free.
    Here in Europe nobody uses text messages anymore. It's all WhatsApp. Then I use messenger to connect to some of my non-European friends. There are a number of 'more secure' apps... However, nothing is ever fully secure, any code can be cracked. Certainly free apps... Which doesn't mean they aren't useful, I use them all the time. I find them especially helpful when I have to call around the world, saves a lot of money. I found out recently that abroad it was cheaper to buy data than minutes/messages in a bundle. In the EU however I have unlimited everything so it's easy to forget when abroad. Then again, before we had to pay minutes for internet use on the old dial-up systems... Now we pay a monthly fee for unlimited... The future will tell.
    Last edited by luctor-et-emergo; 12-12-2018 at 01:01 PM.
    "I am a bird"

  6. #5
    This is what I love about government. Always finding innovative new taxes to implement
    It's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
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  7. #6

  8. #7
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
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    A Zero Hedge comment

  9. #8
    It’s a dumb idea,” said Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council business-sponsored advocacy group. “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.” - [sic]

    Guess you can have free speech but doesn't say you can't tax it.

    We're being governed ruled by a geriatric Alzheimer patient/puppet whose strings are being pulled by an elitist oligarchy who believe they can manage the world... imagine the utter maniacal, sociopathic hubris!



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  11. #9
    This is the best part:
    But they add that under the regulators’ proposal the charge could be applied retroactively for five years — which they call “an alarming precedent” — and could amount to a bill of more than $220 million for California consumers.
    https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/12/...ext-messaging/

    LOL, democrats are $#@!ing insane.

  12. #10
    The Sixth George Harrison tune on a Beatles Album was Taxman ( Revolver ) . Let me tell you how it will be Theres one for you nineteen for me ...... Should five percent appear too small Be thankful I dont take it all ...... Dont ask me what I want it for If you dont want to pay some more .......
    Do something Danke

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Pauls' Revere View Post
    It’s a dumb idea,” said Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council business-sponsored advocacy group. “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.” - [sic]

    Guess you can have free speech but doesn't say you can't tax it.
    It's ex post facto too:

    Quote Originally Posted by specsaregood View Post
    This is the best part:

    But they add that under the regulators’ proposal the charge could be applied retroactively for five years — which they call “an alarming precedent” — and could amount to a bill of more than $220 million for California consumers.

    https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/12/...ext-messaging/

    LOL, democrats are $#@!ing insane.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  14. #12
    I will do Kona's job like I have to do Matt Collins' job.


    California mulls texting fee to help poor people get phones

    https://apnews.com/1380651d8c02474fb...ign=SocialFlow

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California regulators are considering a plan to charge a fee for text messaging on mobile phones to help support programs that make phone service accessible to the poor, according to a newspaper report Wednesday.

    The proposal is scheduled for a vote next month by the state Public Utilities Commission, the Mercury News reported.

    The wireless industry and business groups have been working to defeat the plan.

    “It’s a dumb idea,” said Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council business-sponsored advocacy group. “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.”

    It’s unclear how much money individual consumers would be asked to pay their wireless carrier for texting services under the proposal, the newspaper said. But it is likely would be billed as a flat surcharge — not a fee per text.

    Wunderman said he’s unaware of any other local, state or federal program that taxes texting. And the wireless industry has argued the state commission lacks legal grounds for doing so.

    Business groups calculated the new charges for wireless consumers could total about $44.5 million a year. They said that under the regulators’ proposal the charge could be applied retroactively for five years — and could amount to a bill of more than $220 million for California consumers.

    A CPUC report proposing the texting surcharge says the Public Purpose Program budget has climbed from $670 million in 2011 to $998 million last year. But the telecommunications industry revenues that fund the program fell from $16.5 billion in 2011 to $11.3 billion in 2017, it said.

    “This is unsustainable over time,” the report says, arguing that adding surcharges on text messaging will increase the revenue base that funds programs that help low-income Californians afford phone service.

    “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,” CPUC spokeswoman Constance Gordon said in a statement.

  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    It's ex post facto too:
    Good.

    They voted for it.

    Here's hoping they get it, good and hard.

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    Good.

    They voted for it.

    Here's hoping they get it, good and hard.
    With Gavin at the helm you bet we are. Gawd dam it, I got a front row seat.

    We're being governed ruled by a geriatric Alzheimer patient/puppet whose strings are being pulled by an elitist oligarchy who believe they can manage the world... imagine the utter maniacal, sociopathic hubris!

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    Good.

    They voted for it.

    Here's hoping they get it, good and hard.
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    California has reached the point where those who can't flee it should probably vote for the craziest psychos that run in the hopes of causing such chaos that the feds are allowed to step in and restore order.

    A4S4:

    The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government

    ...
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  18. #16
    Time to educate the masses to stop using text messages, instead use encrypted data services like Signal which Snowden suggests.

    If they won't do it to preserve their privacy they may want to preserve their pocketbook.
    “…let us teach them that all who draw breath are of equal worth, and that those who seek to press heel upon the throat of liberty, will fall to the cry of FREEDOM!!!” – Spartacus, War of the Damned

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  20. #17
    Oh, they mean Tax the Poor to give to the even Poorer? That is no incentive to even get off welfare. The rich, as always will be EXEMPT for this tax because their texts are "used for business purposes". How is that a part of an Honest Money System?
    1776 > 1984

    The FAILURE of the United States Government to operate and maintain an
    Honest Money System , which frees the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, is the single largest contributing factor to the World's current Economic Crisis.

    The Elimination of Privacy is the Architecture of Genocide

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    Our central bank is not privately owned.

  21. #18
    Californians are rich , they can afford it .
    Do something Danke

  22. #19
    Don’t CA residents already pay taxes on their data plan? Didn’t poor people get cell phones from Obama?
    #NashvilleStrong

    “I’m a doctor. That’s a baby.”~~~Dr. Manny Sethi

  23. #20
    So take from the people, stick it in a government account for a few days to skim interest, then give the money to corporations. Doesn't sound very "liberal" to me. Sounds like more corporate fascism.
    "Let it not be said that we did nothing."-Ron Paul

    "We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM. They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality."- A Quote From Some Old Book

  24. #21
    Feds shut it down:

    California reverses course on plan to tax text messages

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ssages-n948586

    The proposal was withdrawn after a new FCC ruling limited states' authority over texting.

    Dec. 16, 2018 / 11:08 PM EST
    By Phil McCausland
    Californians can continue their carefree texting for the foreseeable future.

    The state's public utilities commission announced Friday that it would not tax residents' cell phone plans, reversing course on a proposal to add a new monthly fee on texting in hopes of increasing funding to a program that finances services like 911 and subsidized phone rates for low-income Californians.

    According to the California Public Utilities Commission, the tax would have cost customers an additional $1.40 for $20 of texting charges. But the utilities commission said a new Federal Communications Commission rule would not allow them to follow through on the idea.

    The changed rule came Wednesday when the FCC said text messaging is an information service and not a telecommunications service. That means states have a limited authority over texting.

    The California Public Utilities Commission had scheduled a vote on the measure for Jan. 10, but Commissioner Carla Peterman withdrew the proposal in light of the federal decision.

    The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the rule change gained the support of consumers, conservatives and members of the telecommunications industry.

  25. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    Feds shut it down:

    California reverses course on plan to tax text messages

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ssages-n948586

    The proposal was withdrawn after a new FCC ruling limited states' authority over texting.

    Dec. 16, 2018 / 11:08 PM EST
    By Phil McCausland
    Californians can continue their carefree texting for the foreseeable future.

    The state's public utilities commission announced Friday that it would not tax residents' cell phone plans, reversing course on a proposal to add a new monthly fee on texting in hopes of increasing funding to a program that finances services like 911 and subsidized phone rates for low-income Californians.

    According to the California Public Utilities Commission, the tax would have cost customers an additional $1.40 for $20 of texting charges. But the utilities commission said a new Federal Communications Commission rule would not allow them to follow through on the idea.

    The changed rule came Wednesday when the FCC said text messaging is an information service and not a telecommunications service. That means states have a limited authority over texting.

    The California Public Utilities Commission had scheduled a vote on the measure for Jan. 10, but Commissioner Carla Peterman withdrew the proposal in light of the federal decision.

    The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the rule change gained the support of consumers, conservatives and members of the telecommunications industry.
    Caly should do it anyway . Caly cities do not observe federal weed law , federal immigration law , they should not be bullied . They should tax 20.00 on every 20.00 of texts .
    Last edited by oyarde; 12-17-2018 at 05:26 PM.
    Do something Danke

  26. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    Feds shut it down:

    California reverses course on plan to tax text messages

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...ssages-n948586

    The proposal was withdrawn after a new FCC ruling limited states' authority over texting.

    Dec. 16, 2018 / 11:08 PM EST
    By Phil McCausland
    Californians can continue their carefree texting for the foreseeable future.

    The state's public utilities commission announced Friday that it would not tax residents' cell phone plans, reversing course on a proposal to add a new monthly fee on texting in hopes of increasing funding to a program that finances services like 911 and subsidized phone rates for low-income Californians.

    According to the California Public Utilities Commission, the tax would have cost customers an additional $1.40 for $20 of texting charges. But the utilities commission said a new Federal Communications Commission rule would not allow them to follow through on the idea.

    The changed rule came Wednesday when the FCC said text messaging is an information service and not a telecommunications service. That means states have a limited authority over texting.

    The California Public Utilities Commission had scheduled a vote on the measure for Jan. 10, but Commissioner Carla Peterman withdrew the proposal in light of the federal decision.
    The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the rule change gained the support of consumers, conservatives and members of the telecommunications industry.
    Caly should do it anyway . Caly cities do not observe federal weed law , federal immigration law , they should not be bullied . They should tax 20.00 on every 20.00 of texts . If they did not want to pay the taxes they would not elect these inspirational dem leaders .
    Last edited by oyarde; 12-17-2018 at 05:27 PM.
    Do something Danke

  27. #24
    What isn't California itching to tax? Next thing you know they'll tax people for standing or breathing.
    "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration is minding my own business."

    Calvin Coolidge



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  29. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by oyarde View Post
    Caly should do it anyway. Caly cities do not observe federal weed law , federal immigration law , they should not be bullied . They should tax 20.00 on every 20.00 of texts . If they did not want to pay the taxes they would not elect these inspirational dem leaders .
    I agree. It's a two-fer. Tell the Feds to go pound sand - and then prove (once again) the correctness of Mencken's "good and hard" principle ...

  30. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Federalist View Post
    The state's public utilities commission announced Friday that it would not tax residents' cell phone plans, reversing course on a proposal to add a new monthly fee on texting in hopes of increasing funding to a program that finances services like 911 and subsidized phone rates for low-income Californians.
    There has always been the Obama-phone programs, but recently in California, there has been an uptick in free phones for the poor. They have people outside places like the Dollar Store that ask everyone if they want a free phone, and offer to sign them up. Seems that the free government phone programs are suffering from a lack of participation, so they are now engaged in an aggressive marketing campaign.

    Because of competition, prices are pretty low on phones, especially for those who shop around. Perhaps if we have enough government intervention, they can push the price up until everyone requests their very own government phone.
    "Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
    "Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
    "Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
    "Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul

    Proponent of real science.
    The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.

  31. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by specsaregood View Post
    The good news is that it might push people to use more secure messaging apps, that are tax free.
    and that sir, is your next business idea.

    We're being governed ruled by a geriatric Alzheimer patient/puppet whose strings are being pulled by an elitist oligarchy who believe they can manage the world... imagine the utter maniacal, sociopathic hubris!



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