Posted on 08/26/2012 8:45:26 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
FCC eyes tax on Internet service By Brendan Sasso - 08/26/12 06:00 AM ET
The Federal Communications Commission is eyeing a proposal to tax broadband Internet service.
The move would funnel money to the Connect America Fund, a subsidy the agency created last year to expand Internet access.
The FCC issued a request for comments on the proposal in April. Dozens of companies and trade associations have weighed in, but the issue has largely flown under the public's radar.
"If members of Congress understood that the FCC is contemplating a broadband tax, they'd sit up and take notice," said Derek Turner, research director for Free Press, a consumer advocacy group that opposes the tax.
Numerous companies, including AT&T, Sprint and even Google have expressed support for the idea.
Consumers already pay a fee on their landline and cellular phone bills to support the FCC's Universal Service Fund. The fund was created to ensure that everyone in the country has access to telephone service, even if they live in remote areas.
Last year, the FCC overhauled a $4.5 billion portion of the Universal Service Fund and converted it into a broadband Internet subsidy, called the Connect America Fund. The new fund aims to subsidize the construction of high-speed Internet networks to the estimated 19 million Americans who currently lack access.
Julius Genachowski, the FCC's chairman, has made expanding broadband access his top priority. He argues that a high-speed Internet connection is critical for succeeding in the 21st century economy and that expanding Internet access is the country's next great infrastructure challenge.
But the money for the new Internet subsidy is still coming from the fees on phone bills.
And in recent years, with more people sending emails instead of making long-distance phone calls, the money flowing into the program has begun to dry up. The Universal Service fee has had to grow to a larger and larger portion of phone bills to compensate.
The FCC floated a number of ideas for reforming the fund's contribution system. In addition to the broadband fee, the commission also sought comments on taxing text messages, as well as levying a flat fee on each phone line, instead of the current system, which is based on a portion of the revenue from interstate phone calls.
The commission only sought input on the ideas and did not indicate whether it planned to move ahead with any of them, including the broadband fee.
When the FCC released its proposal, Genachowski issued a statement saying the current contribution system is outdated and full of loopholes.
"Today we propose three goals for contribution reform: efficiency, fairness, and sustainability," Genachowski said. "And we underscore that any reforms to the contribution system must safeguard core Commission objectives, including the promotion of broadband innovation, investment, and adoption."
In its filing, Google argued that the evidence "strongly supports expanding the [Universal Service Fund] contribution base to include broadband Internet access services."
According to Google, taxing broadband service is preferable to taxing the kinds of online services it offers, like email or Google Voice.
"Saddling these offerings with new, direct USF contribution obligations is likely to restrict innovative options for all communications consumers and cause immediate and lasting harm to the users, pioneers, and innovators of Internet-based services," Google argued.
But Turner argued that imposing a fee on broadband access, even if it is only a dollar or two, would discourage many people from buying the service—the exact opposite outcome of what the FCC is trying to achieve.
"For folks who are thinking about adopting broadband, who have much lower incomes or don't value broadband as much—that extra dollar on the margins will cause millions of people... to not adopt," Turner said.
The FCC could run into legal problems with the Internet Tax Freedom Act, a 1998 law that bans the government from taxing Internet access. But the FCC has long argued that Universal Service is a fee that the providers choose to pass on to consumers and not a tax.
Turner said it is unlikely that the FCC will make any controversial moves before November's election.
"I don't anticipate that the chairman would move to adopt a drastic overhaul ahead of the election," he said.
"Expand Internet Access = free internet, free wireless and free computers to protected classes.
In other words: More stealth reparations and wealth redistribution.
Only Congress has the power to tax.
Only Congress has the power to tax.
Only Congress has the power to tax.
Only Congress has the power to tax.
Only Congress has the power to tax.
</sarcasm>
ALL the administrative agencies need to butt out!
FDA, FCC, EPA, blah blah blah...
CONGRESS writes the laws. The agencies, as part of the executive branch, HAVE NO POWER TO WRITE LAWS OR INTERPRET LAWS OUTSIDE THE BOUNDS OF THE STATUTES!!
Separation of powers and all that jazz...
>>But the FCC has long argued that Universal Service is a fee that the providers choose to pass on to consumers and not a tax.
More proof of how divorced from reality the Left and gov’t are.
and use the money to give free fast internet to the “poor”
after the bureaucracy takes its 70% cut
I think I’m ready to get of the merry-go-round now. :(
What else can explain the desire of big companies to support the tax? Even if the tax must be directly billed to the consumer, the big ISPs can lower their rates to make the tax “look” like the rates stay the same until the smaller ones are out of business.
This tax does not enhance competition, imo...it erodes it.
So what is keeping the big companies from lowering their rates by the same amount now in order to drive the small companies out of business.
I think they do, don’t you?
I am no genius, but I am very very suspect of big companies embracing a tax to be slapped upon all consumers.
Why would they?
Not an enumerated power. They’re already giving away “free” phones to welfare recipients. We don’t need another tax scam.
Excellent and a needed innovation in every state and the nation. Do you have a link to the legislation or the orgs that pushed it?
Our legislature meets 90 days/year. Legislation must move fast. Last year the new guys flooded the zone, so to speak. They did what our next Congress/President must do, which was to introduce so many conservative bills that the Left was overwhelmed and could not effectively direct their resources to defeat any single bill.
I spoke with my Congressman Steve Southerland at a good ‘ol southern BBQ/beer bash/fundraiser a few weeks ago about this. There are proposals to nip around the edges of the administrative agencies, but no blanket bill to regain their legislative responsibilities. Our side, like the rats, would much rather let administrative agencies absorb voter wrath.
As with anything else, to get our reps to move off bottom dead center requires pressure from us, couched in veiled threats to primary ‘em.
I never realized the US Constitution asigned the FCC a taxing authority
You’re right. The entire cause of the bureaucracy is to absorb, Jupiter-like, the hits politicians should/would be taking for policy decisions. Fat cat donors and big corporations also like the bureaucracy because their “rulings” benefit the biggest players and the deepest pockets while harming upstarts and hamstringing the consumers.
Who would have settled the mortgage fraud claims like the government did?
Your Electric bill still has a Federal tax/fee to ‘electrify all of America’.
That has been in place for decades.
While there are still places where electricity isn’t being used, that money is raising lots of revenue for the Federal Government, with absolutely NO explanation of where those funds are going.
There is also a fee on your telephone bill to ‘put computer service into every classroom in America. With all the cell phones today, I wonder how much money that fee is raising—also without any explanation of where it is being spent by Obama.
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