C7 What are we voting on?
Ventura voters will be asked to vote on Measure C7 on the current November ballot.
What exactly is it?
The simplest explanation is that it updates a forty year old-tax on telephone use. It is revenue neutral -- that is to say it won't generate any more or any less in taxes.
So why are we voting on it?
Under Proposition 218, no tax can be raised -- or changed -- without a vote of the people affected. For voters old enough to remember 40 years ago, telephones were pretty simple back then. You usually had one, it was black, had a dial on the front and it was connected to the wall by a wire.
Phones today are totally different. So C7 would update our tax law to apply fairly to the new technologies. Because the new law closes a couple of small loopholes, it would generate about 10% more revenue. So the City Council decided to cut the tax rate by 10% to ensure that this change keeps things the same.
More than a dozen cities have already changed their outdated laws and we are following their lead. It has passed overwhelmingly in all those cities.
What happens if voters don't approve C7?
In the short run, absolutely nothing. The old tax stays the same. But as other cities update their law, Ventura runs the risk of expensive lawsuits challenging the validity of our obsolete statute.
One last question always comes up: Will this tax now be imposed on my cell phone?
It already is. If C7 passes the rate will go down from 5% to 4.5% No other changes to your cell phone bill.
Now that you mention it, What about the Internet? Will that be taxed?
No. That is forbidden by Federal law.
Where can I learn more?
http://www.cityofventura.net/uut/
What exactly is it?
The simplest explanation is that it updates a forty year old-tax on telephone use. It is revenue neutral -- that is to say it won't generate any more or any less in taxes.
So why are we voting on it?
Under Proposition 218, no tax can be raised -- or changed -- without a vote of the people affected. For voters old enough to remember 40 years ago, telephones were pretty simple back then. You usually had one, it was black, had a dial on the front and it was connected to the wall by a wire.
Phones today are totally different. So C7 would update our tax law to apply fairly to the new technologies. Because the new law closes a couple of small loopholes, it would generate about 10% more revenue. So the City Council decided to cut the tax rate by 10% to ensure that this change keeps things the same.
More than a dozen cities have already changed their outdated laws and we are following their lead. It has passed overwhelmingly in all those cities.
What happens if voters don't approve C7?
In the short run, absolutely nothing. The old tax stays the same. But as other cities update their law, Ventura runs the risk of expensive lawsuits challenging the validity of our obsolete statute.
One last question always comes up: Will this tax now be imposed on my cell phone?
It already is. If C7 passes the rate will go down from 5% to 4.5% No other changes to your cell phone bill.
Now that you mention it, What about the Internet? Will that be taxed?
No. That is forbidden by Federal law.
Where can I learn more?
http://www.cityofventura.net/uut/
posted by Rick Cole at
1:57 PM
3 Comments:
Just because you folks in the City Hall say it is revenue neutral doesn't make it so. If you add interstate and international calls to the tax and anything else that may come along in the future the amount of money we, (the citizens) pay in will of course expand. Depending on how many long distance calls you make you could be paying 2 to 3 times more.
If all the rest of the cities in Ventura county can get along without the UUT why do you think that the citizens of Ventura should be penalized for using their communication devices? As far as charging for the cell phones you know as well as I do that the charge has been illegal, if any of the suits go against you folks you may have to rebate all those taxes.
Rellis
Ha! I didn't know I was already paying the tax on my cell phone. I thought this was a new, stealthy tax!
So, why wouldn't I want to vote to reduce that tax? Seems pretty straightforward.
And long distance tolls have diminished to the point they are included in my Verizon and Vonage monthly flat rates.
This is an absolutely arcane and unfair tax and the city's "revisions" have brought it up to the late 20th Century, but certainly nowhere close to the 21st. A tax on phone service is unfair, both to consumers and to phone companies. Shift the tax to something that is truly universal, like our city water bills, and it would be fair. It is not the amount of the tax at issue, but the methodology. It is wrong, it disadvantages phone service vs cable and unfairly taxes those who use these services.
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