Last we, we reported that a decision issued by the Federal Communications Commission jeopardized California’s proposed text tax. Politicos had promised that the revenues for the line item would be used to provide services to the poor; however, there was widespread outrage at the idea.
Now, the state’s regulators have officially killed the proposal.
California regulators are nixing a plan to tax mobile phone messaging following a ruling by federal telecommunications regulators.The controversial “text tax,” which drew opposition from wireless providers and business groups, had originally been introduced as a means to fund programs that make phone service accessible to low-income residents.The Federal Communications Commission last week classified messaging as an information service rather than a telecommunications service. California Public Utilities Commissioner Carla Peterman withdrew the plan “in light of the FCC’s action” on Dec. 12, regulators said Friday.
However, our tax collection enthusiasts will not be thwarted! A California lawmaker is pushing a new tax on sales of semi-automatic firearms, with the proceeds going into the state’s massive coffers to fund another social justice program.
“The gun tax will support the kind of interventions that make gun violence less likely in the first place which is exactly what we need to do,” Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-Greenbrae, said in a statement Wednesday.The new tax revenue would be routed through the existing California Violence Intervention and Prevention Program, overseen by the Board of State and Community Corrections, which send grants to cities and community-based organizations.Will Shuck, Levine’s chief of staff, said that the amount of the excise tax is to be determined, but that the state could look to Chicago or Seattle, which impose a $25 tax on most firearm sales, as a model.
And now that revenues are coming in from legalized pot sales, the tax men are making sure Sacramento gets its cut…as well as hiking the rate!
San Diego is trying to boost tax revenue from the city’s dozen legal marijuana dispensaries by auditing them and tightening restrictions on sales to medical cannabis patients, which are tax-exempt.The audits, which are expected to conclude this month, aim to ensure the dispensaries are complying with a 5% tax on all cannabis sales that city voters approved in 2016, officials said.The tax, which will increase to 8% on July 1, is expected to generate more than $6 million in revenue for the city in the current budget year, officials said. It’s a gross receipts tax, so it covers all revenue generated by a marijuana business.Another goal of the audits is revealing the names of distributors supplying marijuana and edible products to the dispensaries, helping the city ensure none of those businesses are skirting the cannabis tax.The city treasurer also plans to begin forcing dispensaries to require medical cannabis customers to present a state-issued Medical Marijuana Identification Card in order to be exempt from the city’s cannabis tax.
Because fewer people smoke pot or have semi-automatic weapons than text, I suspect these tax increases likely live.
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