FCC backpedals from Internet tax

[WestVirginiaRebel]

The Hill:

The Federal Communications Commission is rapidly backpedalling from a proposal to tax broadband Internet service after a public outcry over the issue.

Democrats and Republicans at the agency are now blaming each other for pushing the idea in the first place.

Neil Grace, a spokesman for Chairman Julius Genachowski, said the commission only made the proposal “following the urging of Republican Commissioners and members of Congress."

"The Chairman remains unconvinced that including broadband is the right approach,” he said.

Robert McDowell, the only Republican on the commission when the proposal was floated earlier this year, flatly rejected that he ever supported the idea.

"I have never suggested taxing broadband Internet access," he told The Hill.

McDowell said he is skeptical that the FCC even has the legal authority to tax Internet service.

Consumers already pay a fee on their landline and wireless phone bills to support the FCC's Universal Service Fund, which aims to provide phone service to everyone in the country, 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.

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 and text messages 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.

In April, the FCC suggested a number of ideas for reforming the fund's contribution system, including adding a fee to broadband Internet service. 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.

A number of companies, including AT&T, Sprint and Google, expressed support for a broadband tax in comments filed with the FCC.

But the potential broadband tax gained wider attention in recent weeks, and the proposal now appears to be off the table.

One FCC official said an Internet tax is "politically toxic."

________

 

It was a bad idea that deserved a quick death.