Costs of Measure S
Angelenos could pay as much as $120 a year in telephone taxes if Measure S passes Feb. 5, rewriting the city's existing telephone users tax to include modern technologies and help Los Angeles avoid legal challenges that could void the current tax, which generates $270 million a year.Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.
The measure would allow the city to tax voice mail service, pagers, text or instant messages sent by cell phone or PDA, and private communications services such as T-1 lines businesses often use.
A city resident with a landline and a personal digital assistant such as a BlackBerry - which can be used as a mobile phone and computer - would be taxed on the telephone and text services, which could add up to $10 a month in taxes or $120 a year.
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About The
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The Los Angeles Daily News' City Hall reporters Rick Orlov and Kerry Cavanaugh write about politics on the local, state and national stage.
Please think this vote through very carefully. The loss of telephone fees previously collected would mean a huge loss in public services, such as fire & police. The past and current budgets included the fees collected through this process. Now, imagine huge cut backs on essential safety services. We can not afford to go backwards at this stage of the game. Can you imagine having no fire response to mud slides in the higher elevations. No highrise fire response, or hazzardous materials response? Can you imagine going back to 1000 murders in the City? If we can keep things in perspective, keeping the telephone fee would keep our city moving forward in keeping the quality of our lives & safety above that of other large cities. The economic loss due to reduced services would exceed the $120.00 we pay. This is not new fees collected, but the same small amount we pay each time we pay our bill. Most people probable don't even review their bill and notice the fee added to the total each month. Remember, we have been paying the fee for years and reaped the rewards of having less than 400 murders in 2007...that's a huge boost in keeping our city desirable as a place to go to for entertainment and dining. Look around and see the investments throughout Los Angeles for upscale shopping, dining and entertainment...none of that will stay long if it can not be protected, or if no one felt safe enough to go there. Vote yes on "S" and keep Los Angeles thriving.
I imagine that it could cost even more if you have kids who like to text message all the time.
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