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California mulls text tax on mobile messages
CBS news ^ | 12/12/18 | Kate Gibson

Posted on 12/12/2018 3:45:39 PM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; taxes
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1 posted on 12/12/2018 3:45:39 PM PST by NoLibZone
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To: NoLibZone

I heard they’re working on Breath Counter oh wait there’s an App ,LOL


2 posted on 12/12/2018 3:47:59 PM PST by butlerweave
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To: NoLibZone

Liberals have found another moving target to tax.


3 posted on 12/12/2018 3:48:02 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: NoLibZone

So the mobile company will monitor your texting and add that tax to your bill?


4 posted on 12/12/2018 3:48:57 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: NoLibZone

Won’t be long before RATS tax nose boogers.


5 posted on 12/12/2018 3:51:42 PM PST by dforest (Just shut up Obama. Maybe everyone should just shut up!)
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To: SkyDancer

They voted for this. They got it.


6 posted on 12/12/2018 3:51:49 PM PST by Fai Mao (There is no rule of law in the US until The PIAPS is executed.)
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To: NoLibZone

How about a tax on breathing?

Wait! What? That’s what a carbon tax is?

Never mind.


7 posted on 12/12/2018 3:52:03 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Democracy dies when Democrats refuse to accept the result of a democratic election they didn't win.)
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To: NoLibZone

They can ‘take it all’ and it still will not be enough.
Pitchforks & torches when?


8 posted on 12/12/2018 3:53:08 PM PST by glasseye ("24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not." ~ H. L. Mencken)
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To: NoLibZone

Illegals need phones too!!111


9 posted on 12/12/2018 3:57:39 PM PST by LeoTDB69
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To: NoLibZone
The last time I set foot in Kalifornia was about 25 years ago...and that was simply to change planes.I'll never again set foot in that filthy,depraved cesspool.
10 posted on 12/12/2018 3:58:50 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (I've Never Owned Slaves...You've Never Picked Cotton.End Of "Discussion".)
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To: NoLibZone

How will they achieve this??


11 posted on 12/12/2018 3:59:14 PM PST by originalbuckeye ('In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act'- George Orwell)
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To: NoLibZone
"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.

Now I need to clean my screen and keyboard! NOTHING from any government entity EVER reduces in cost or is kept at low cost. Increases in all fees is an inevitable outcome - see the parable of the "Camel's Nose"!

Also consider that California's implicit desire is free immigration from the Latin American countries and that they are, almost without exception, poor. Thus the need for the subsidy will be continuous. But remember, this is a double secret operation!

12 posted on 12/12/2018 3:59:25 PM PST by SES1066 (Happiness is a depressed Washington, DC housing market!)
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To: SkyDancer

I am sure they all ready know exactly how many texts you send and receive.

It just of matter of billing you for them.


13 posted on 12/12/2018 3:59:51 PM PST by riverrunner
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To: NoLibZone

Jokes aside somene has to be a sick bastard to even contemplate such a thing.


14 posted on 12/12/2018 4:00:06 PM PST by relictele
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To: LeoTDB69
Illegals need phones too!!111

Illegals need FREE phones too.

15 posted on 12/12/2018 4:00:35 PM PST by BipolarBob (Have a McClane Christmas : "Now I have a machine gun HO-HO - HO".)
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To: NoLibZone

Please do it California. Lol


16 posted on 12/12/2018 4:00:50 PM PST by arkfreepdom
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To: SkyDancer
"So the mobile company will monitor your texting and add that tax to your bill?" The carriers transport your messages, and, yes, they count them and know the bandwidth they utilize etc. So they already have that and apply whatever taxes the feds and state govs require them to pass along.

Carriers already are required to add taxes to fund subsidies for rural areas. There is also a lifeline program for qualifying low income people. I don't know details but programs like this exist already. Not enough for California.

In fact there used to be an excise tax the carriers had to pass long that was left over to pay for the Spanish American War. Teddy Roosevelt got it passed and it wasn't stopped until 2005!

17 posted on 12/12/2018 4:02:08 PM PST by plain talk
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To: Fai Mao

Voting system in California is so corrupt and one-party-sided that voting there is no different than voting in the old Soviet Union.


18 posted on 12/12/2018 4:03:29 PM PST by doomtrooper99 (Mr Truman, you did not finish the job)
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To: NoLibZone
 face with tears of joy face with tears of joy face with tears of joy face with tears of joy face with tears of joy
19 posted on 12/12/2018 4:03:58 PM PST by kiryandil (Never pick a fight with an angry beehive)
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To: doomtrooper99

“Voting system in California is so corrupt and one-party-sided that voting there is no different than voting in the old Soviet Union.”

The people there still voted this in and did not stop it when it started.

They didn’t even to my knowledge raise a mild protest.


20 posted on 12/12/2018 4:06:05 PM PST by Fai Mao (There is no rule of law in the US until The PIAPS is executed.)
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