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Tax
Alert
A bi-weekly Report by
Damon B. Ansell
Volume 6 Issue 27
March 30, 2000
A Chicken In Every Pot ... To A Computer
In Every Lap (David Kralik)
Maine's
Independent Gov. Angus King recently proved he's not
independent. In fact,
he's beholden to big government programs. He recently came up with a
scheme to give all 17,000 seventh graders a free laptop by
2002. As always, Tax
Alert must ask, where the money is coming from.
The program would give away a $500
state-funded laptop, made possible by a $65 million endowment, $50
million of which comes from (Surprise!) the surplus. Also under this plan, each
of Maine's 14,000 teachers will receive a laptop, partially paid for
by a $250 un-funded mandate on local school districts. In these times of
prosperity, it seems that the surplus is the first place governors
look to for their big-spending pet projects. Tax Alert would like to
know: Where one can buy a laptop that cheap, and why the governor
decided upon young and irresponsible seventh graders as
recipients?
King's desire to be an education governor
really doesn't make sense.
His own education budget calls for less spending than what
the legislature has settled on, and his overnight solution for
better education ignores the fact that students are learning in
trailers due to overcrowding.
Further, students must contend with leaky roofs because of a
$200 million backlog in school repair projects. King's plan has support from
Dana Connors, president of the Maine Chamber of Commerce, but the
Maine Education Association and the Maine School Management
Association, along with lawmakers on both sides, have attacked the
plan as either half-baked or unaffordable.
"I think it's sinking like a stone," said
Rep. William Norbert (D-Portland). "A great idea for every
school, after we repair them and renovate them," said Rep. John Buck
(R-Yarmouth).
Since King has so little support inside his
state for his ineffective, big-government program he has taken the
issue to the national level where it's being applauded by President
Clinton and the media.
As he crusades, watch for the “computer in every lap” idea to
become a national trend and work now to defeat it because as
Democrat Rep. Elizabeth Townsend says, "when I go door-to-door and
ask people about their concerns, nobody has ever said to me: 'My
seventh-grader doesn't have a laptop. Would you fix
that?'"
Ky Gov. Seeks Flat Tax To Replace Cable,
Telecom Franchise Fees
In Measure That Has Drawn Support From Cable
And Telecom companies, Ky. Gov. Paul Patton (D) proposed a flat 7%
consumption-based excise tax for all telecom services -- telephone,
wireless telephone, satellite TV, cable and pagers -- that would
replace existing sales tax and franchise fees. (Comm Daily,
3/28/00.)
Big
Victory At The Final Meeting Of The Advisory Commission On
Electronic Commerce in Dallas
Advocates of imposing new tax collection
schemes online were defeated in their attempt to use the Commission
to advance their cause of giving states and localities the authority
to export their tax collection regimes beyond their borders. These pro-taxation
advocates, led by the National Governors Association and the
National League of Cities, were flatly rebuffed by the majority of
commissioners who recognized that the quickest way to strangle the
high-tech economy is by saddling the Internet, its backbone, with
new taxes.
The Commission instead approved a proposal by
anti-tax and business representatives that will keep the Internet
free of burdensome new taxes and regulations, while at the same time
urging state and local governments to simplify their Byzantine sales
tax systems. The panel
also endorsed the repeal of the federal 3% excise tax on
telecommunications, a tax originally instituted as a luxury tax in
1898 to fund the Spanish-American War.
Special recognition goes to the Commission's
Chairman, Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, for successfully assembling and
holding a majority of the Commission in favor of the anti-tax
position. The Clinton
Administration, on the other hand, showed no leadership on the issue
at all, as their representatives abstained from every single
substantive vote throughout the Commission's final
meeting.
For or more information contact Chad
Cowan at 202-785-0266.
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