Voters to decide on texting tax

SACRAMENTO, June 18 (UPI) -- Sacramento, Calif., voters will soon get to vote on paying taxes for text messaging and other new technologies in exchange for lowering other utility taxes.

Decreasing revenues from taxes on old technology, such as regular telephones, helped drive the City Council's Tuesday decision to put the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot, the Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday. Also at play is the possibility of legal challenges to local taxes on wireless technology without a referendum.

"We believe the voters, not the courts, should decide the fate of this revenue stream," said Russ Fehr, city treasurer. "There is $12 million a year at stake."

But the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association called that argument "baloney" in promising to oppose the proposal.

"They're packaging it as a tax reduction and it's not. It's an increase," said Timothy Bittle, director of legal affairs for the taxpayers group. "They're not only trying to hoodwink voters to ratify a tax on cell phones, but they're adding insult to injury by extending it to all current and future technologies."