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Picture of TigerDore
posted
in order to "help the poor".

https://www.foxnews.com/us/cal...messages-reports-say


------------

Text messages might be next to face California tax, reports say



California state regulators have been working on a plan to charge mobile phone users a text messaging fee intended to fund programs that make phone service accessible to the low-income residents, reports said Tuesday.

The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on the proposal next month, but critics have already come out against the scheme, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

“It’s a dumb idea,” Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council business group, told the paper. “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.”

While the amount consumers would be expected to pay remained unclear, some business groups are saying the new charges could cost wireless users more than $44 million a year, FOX11 Los Angeles reported.

Charges may also be applied retroactively to messages sent in the past five years, which has raised questions concerning the proposal’s legality, Rufus Jeffress, vice president of the Bay Area Council, told the San Francisco Bay Area's KNTV-TV. The “alarming precedent” could chalk up to a bill of more than $220 million for consumers, the Mercury News reported.

The wireless industry argues that the fees would put carriers at a disadvantage since competing messaging services like Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp would not be charged the new fees, FOX11 reported.

Those against the proposal said that wireless customers already pay into the state’s Public Purpose Programs, which they call “healthy and well-funded” with nearly $1 billion in its budget, the Mercury News reported. But state regulators disagree, saying the budget has increased more than $300 million over six years, KNTV reported.

Residents lamented the potential tax, calling it “dumb” and “unfair.”

“To have them charge us something else is just dumb,” a Bay Area resident told KNTV. “I think it’s very unfair, especially for the people that can barely pay for their cell phone plan already.”


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Posts: 8618 | Registered: September 26, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Peace through
superior firepower
Picture of parabellum
posted Hide Post
The people sending the most text messages are likely "the poor", aka, people without jobs who sit around all day texting.

California : Go Tax Yourself
 
Posts: 107556 | Registered: January 20, 2000Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Picture of chellim1
posted Hide Post
quote:
in order to "help the poor".

Roll Eyes
Don't they already all have Obamaphones?
Every "poor" person I see has a better phone than I do...



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 24100 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of TigerDore
posted Hide Post
I have several friends there who are normal people. I keep wondering when the revolt will occur.
 
Posts: 8618 | Registered: September 26, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Get my pies
outta the oven!

Picture of PASig
posted Hide Post
So...The Stamp Act, 2018 edition?

Didn't we used to have revolutions over such nonsense?


 
Posts: 33793 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Too old to run,
too mean to quit!
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
So...The Stamp Act, 2018 edition?

Didn't we used to have revolutions over such nonsense?


Yeah, back before the majority of our population lost their freaking minds


Elk

There has never been an occasion where a people gave up their weapons in the interest of peace that didn't end in their massacre. (Louis L'Amour)

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. "
-Thomas Jefferson

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis de Tocqueville

FBHO!!!



The Idaho Elk Hunter
 
Posts: 25643 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 16, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Stuck on
himself
posted Hide Post
This is a fantastic idea that deserves our support. The coveted millennial voting block would be in open rebellion against the Dems Within minutes.
 
Posts: 4177 | Registered: January 23, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Get my pies
outta the oven!

Picture of PASig
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by asonie:
This is a fantastic idea that deserves our support. The coveted millennial voting block would be in open rebellion against the Dems Within minutes.


No, the market would react and a non-text, nontaxable medium would take over within a short time.

Technically an Apple blue "text" isn't even a text message as it's not SMS and goes over the data network, not cellular network. Would that be taxed too?


 
Posts: 33793 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: November 12, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Go ahead punk, make my day
posted Hide Post
Only certain things in life - death and taxes.
 
Posts: 45798 | Registered: July 12, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ammoholic
Picture of Skins2881
posted Hide Post
Will the tax be progressive? If not they will be taxing the poor to pay the poor. Seems like it would be more efficient to just not tax the poor for using their phones.



Jesse

Sic Semper Tyrannis
 
Posts: 20819 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: December 27, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
I fuckin hate this state!!!!! Mad Mad Mad
 
Posts: 270 | Location: NorCal | Registered: June 24, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Stuck on
himself
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
quote:
Originally posted by asonie:
This is a fantastic idea that deserves our support. The coveted millennial voting block would be in open rebellion against the Dems Within minutes.


No, the market would react and a non-text, nontaxable medium would take over within a short time.

Technically an Apple blue "text" isn't even a text message as it's not SMS and goes over the data network, not cellular network. Would that be taxed too?


I hear ya, mostly that was sarcasm.
 
Posts: 4177 | Registered: January 23, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Save an Elephant
Kill a Poacher
Picture of urbanwarrior238
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quote:
Originally posted by F12517:
I fuckin hate this state!!!!! Mad Mad Mad


Ditto


'I am the danger'...Hiesenberg
NRA Certified Pistol Instructor
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor
NRA Life Member
 
Posts: 1376 | Location: Escaped from Kalifornia to Arizona February 2022! | Registered: March 02, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Crusty old
curmudgeon
Picture of Jimbo54
posted Hide Post
Wouldn't the poor be more inclined to get cheap text only plans?

Idiots!!

Jim


________________________

"If you can't be a good example, then you'll have to be a horrible warning" -Catherine Aird
 
Posts: 9791 | Location: The right side of Washington State | Registered: September 14, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Next up for Kalifornia:
Poopy Paper Tax: Per sheet used.
Retroactive for every poop taken since 1970.


End of Earth: 2 Miles
Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
 
Posts: 16086 | Location: Marquette MI | Registered: July 08, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of bayouman
posted Hide Post
Why tax the text messages, I see tv ads all the time for free cell phones with free minutes and text. These are for low income at no cost. Don't they have those in Kalifornia ?


Bayouman
Never let the enemy pick the battle site.
 
Posts: 727 | Location: New Orleans, Louisiana  | Registered: June 28, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Raised Hands Surround Us
Three Nails To Protect Us
Picture of Black92LX
posted Hide Post
quote:
Charges may also be applied retroactively to messages sent in the past five years


RETROACTIVE FOR 5 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These people are absolutely out of control.


————————————————
The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad.
If we got each other, and that's all we have.
I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand.
You should know I'll be there for you!
 
Posts: 25417 | Registered: September 06, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Still finding my way
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I know where I'd like the comet to impact first.
 
Posts: 10849 | Registered: January 04, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fire begets Fire
Picture of SIGnified
posted Hide Post
Hey Cali... seen Paris lately?





"Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty."
~Robert A. Heinlein
 
Posts: 26756 | Location: dughouse | Registered: February 04, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of Leemur
posted Hide Post
Next is a masturbation tax because you’re cheating a hooker out of earning $10 for a hand job.
 
Posts: 13742 | Location: Shenandoah Valley, VA | Registered: October 16, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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