FROM MONORAIL TAX TO STEALTH INTERNET TAX

In King’s County, Washington, residents are discovering that a monorail tax may drag on for another 15 years. And in Washington DC, congressional committee studying tax reform, the Joint Committee on Taxation, announced it was considering expanding the three percent tax on telecommunications to cover all data communications services to end users, including cell phones, broadband, dial-up, cable modems, and DSL links.

Taxes never die – nor does it seem in the United States these days that they ever get much smaller. Like a virus, taxes mutate, infecting first one product or service, then another.

Last year residents of King County, Washington were convinced to levy upon themselves fees for a new monorail, designed to ease congestion and speed transit in the Seattle area. Backers promised the tax, assessed on motor vehicle tabs, would be paid off in 25 years.

Now King5 reports, officials are asking state government in Olympia for some changes in the name of “housekeeping.” As part of the revisions, the project’s managers want to extend the tax for an additional 15 years. King5 quotes Jonathan Buchter of the Seattle Monorail Project as saying: "What we are asking for here in my view are technically housekeeping amendments to our existing statutes. The reason we are asking for them is for flexibility in terms of our financial arrangements."

The Monorail also wants to take another look at the license tab tax, which has not been generating as much revenue as forecast. It is assessed only on those citizens who live in King County. Some people, in an effort to avoid paying, have been registering their vehicles outside the area. The officials want the Department of Revenue to go after the scofflaws and charge them a triple penalty to comply.

Meanwhile, in his “Letter from the Founder” to investment letter subscribers, Porter Stansberry of Stansberry and Associates talks about a one cent phone tax that Congress enacted in 1898 to pay for the Spanish American War. The tax, mostly levied on the “wealthy” since few others had phones then, was repealed a few years later.

It was then resurrected to help pay for World War I. In 1990, still in existence, it was raised to three percent. With the rise of the internet and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), the revenues, based upon traditional phone usage, may be in jeopardy.

Now, Stansberry reports (as the media have, too), “Last Thursday the congressional committee studying tax reform, the Joint Committee on Taxation, announced it was considering expanding the three percent tax on telecommunications ................Full Article www.FreeMarketNews.com

I think this calls for a break out into song:

Lyle Lanley: Well, sir, there's nothing on earth
Like a genuine,
Bona fide,
Electrified,
Six-car
Monorail!
What'd I say?

Ned Flanders: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley: What's it called?

Patty+Selma: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley: That's right! Monorail!

[crowd chants `Monorail' softly and rhythmically]

Miss Hoover: I hear those things are awfully loud...

Lyle Lanley: It glides as softly as a cloud.

Apu: Is there a chance the track could bend?

Lyle Lanley: Not on your life, my Hindu friend.

Barney: What about us brain-dead slobs?

Lyle Lanley: You'll be given cushy jobs.

Abe: Were you sent here by the devil?

Lyle Lanley: No, good sir, I'm on the level.

Wiggum: The ring came off my pudding can.

Lyle Lanley: Take my pen knife, my good man.

I swear it's Springfield's only choice...
Throw up your hands and raise your voice!

All: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley: What's it called?

All: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley: Once again...

All: Monorail!

Marge: But Main Street's still all cracked and broken...

Bart: Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken!

All: Monorail!
Monorail!
Monorail!

[big finish]

Monorail!

Homer: Mono... D'oh!

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