Copyright 2000 Boston Herald Inc.
The Boston Herald
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March 18, 2000 Saturday ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 018
LENGTH: 605 words
HEADLINE:
Op-Ed; AS YOU WERE SAYING ... To spread Internet access, eliminate
telephone taxes
BYLINE: By Richard J.
Killion
BODY:
Few people would
disagree that access to the Internet and the latest technology is crucial to
success in our digital economy. Given the importance of this access to
technology, the "digital divide" - the tendency of access to the Internet to be
more common among the better off - is certainly worthy of the recent attention
focused on it by the presidential candidates and our elected officials.
Unfortunately, federal officials from Vice President Al Gore and Sen.
John McCain to state officials like Maine Gov. Angus King and city officials
like Washington, D.C., Mayor Tony Williams are in hot pursuit of new regulations
and programs to increase access. Yet one of the easiest and most effective
solutions is right under their noses.
Excessive government taxation and
regulation of communication services is the greatest impediment to access of
technology and further widens the digital divide. American consumers currently
pay between 20 percent and 40 percent in taxes on our communications services -
rates similar to those of "sin" taxes. These taxes have a drastic and direct
impact on Americans' ability and desire to go on-line.
The government
must re-examine its telecommunications taxation regime. One example of the
gluttonous waste that characterizes the communications taxation regime is the
federal excise tax on telecommunications that costs Americans nearly $ 6 billion
every year for the privilege of using the phone. This tax is left over from the
Spanish-American War, which we won more than a century ago. Yet the wartime levy
still exists - it's time to stop putting burdens on communications with outdated
tax and regulatory models.
While ignoring this regressive tax, the
federal government and many state governments would attempt to rapidly expand
technology to all regions and income levels. Gov. King has recently unveiled a
new initiative called "From Lunchboxes to Laptops." It is his intent
to "conquer the digital divide" by providing all of Maine's seventh graders with
personal Internet-ready laptop computers. This program will cost $ 50
million. One of the primary benefits claimed for the laptop program
is that students will use their computers at home.
Gov. King hopes his
plan will go "a long way toward eliminating the digital divide." If the governor
wishes to bridge the divide, he should lower taxes and thus make access more
affordable.
Citizens for a Sound Economy has always asserted, and a
recent study by the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society
confirmed, that eliminating taxes and regulations is the best approach the
government can take to bridge the digital divide.
The Stanford study
found that demographics only account for 20 percent of the digital divide. It
concludes that targeted subsidies would not solve the problem.
Several
companies provide access to the Internet without charge, but a highly taxed
phone line is still needed to reach them.
If public servants truly want
to get more people on-line the best solution is to lower the cost of going
on-line by reducing or eliminating outdated and discriminatory taxes on
communications.
Richard J. Killion is director of New Hampshire Citizens
for a Sound Economy, which supports limited government and lower taxes. As You
Were Saying is a regular feature of the Boston Herald. We invite our readers to
contribute pieces of no more than 600 words. Mail contributions to the Boston
Herald, P.O. Box 2096, Boston, MA 02106-2096, fax them to 617-542-1315 or e-mail
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property of the Boston Herald.
LOAD-DATE: March 18,
2000 
