March 17, 2009
MyWireless.org® Thanks Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ), Joins Their Call for Passage of 5-Year Cell Phone Tax Relief Legislation
WASHINGTON, DC – With wireless consumers already paying on average more than 15% a month in taxes and fees on their cell phone bills, the national consumer advocacy coalition MyWireless.org® called today for a 5-year break for consumers from new, discriminatory state and local wireless taxes and fees. Bipartisan legislation intended to provide consumers that protection, entitled the ‘Cell Tax Fairness Act of 2009,’ or H.R. 1521, was re-introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill was introduced by Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ), and it calls for a federal moratorium to be placed on unfair, new state and local wireless taxes and fees for five years. In these tough economic times, Representatives Lofgren and Franks are taking common sense action on behalf of millions of hard-working Americans, seeking to provide much-needed tax relief. MyWireless.org urges the 111th Congress to follow their leadership on this issue.
In the past four years, hundreds of thousands of wireless consumers across the country have helped protect their wireless service from excessive taxes and regulations by contacting their Representatives and Senators through the MyWireless.org Website. As wireless consumers read their monthly bills and set household budgets, they are becoming increasingly aware of the monthly tax and fee burden paid to every level of government, and they are demanding action.
Brian Johnston, Communications Director for MyWireless.org said, “American wireless consumers pay a monthly tax rate that’s often double, and sometimes triple the rate that consumers pay on other goods and services. That burden on the backs of wireless subscribers is blatantly unfair.”
Johnston continued, “Americans face an annual national tax burden of approximately $21 billion dollars in combined monthly wireless taxes, fees and surcharges, just to communicate on their cell phones! Simply put, in these uncertain times, hundreds of millions of American wireless consumers and their families deserve a break from excessive taxes on communicating.”
“States and cities are looking at wireless consumers as easy targets for raising revenue,” said Erik Rosedahl, Director of State Advocacy for MyWireless.org. ”The ‘Cell Tax Fairness Act of 2009’ is an essential and necessary step toward standing up for wireless consumers and saying enough’s enough, and that if a state needs to raise taxes on its residents, it ought to be done in a fair and equitable manner.”
Thankfully for consumers, bipartisan and pro-consumer legislation has again been introduced in the U.S. House – placing a 5-year tax hiatus on new, discriminatory state and local wireless taxes. The fast-approaching Tax Filing Day 2009 is the perfect occasion to mobilize consumers around the country to urge their policymakers in Washington, D.C. to pass the Lofgren-Franks ‘Cell Tax Fairness Act of 2009.’ The U.S. Congress should follow their lead, and co-sponsor H.R. 1521 today.