With President Clinton preparing for his final State of the Union address, the head of a Congressionally-appointed Internet tax advisory panel is urging Clinton to stand strong against taxing the Internet when he makes the address.
Virginnia Governor James Gilmore chairs the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. In a letter to Clinton Tuesday, Conservative News Service says, Gilmore told the President expanding business conducted on the World Wide Web would be hamstrung by taxing Internet transactions.
"In order to realize the Internet's full social and economic potential and close the digital divide, government must expand access to the Internet and keep it tax free," Gilmore's letter says. Clinton, however, has spoken of concern that many Americans, especially in rural and inner-city areas, lack Internet access or its related information and opportunities, and supporters of Net taxes say they can pay for ways to get more people online.
Gilmore is probably the most vociferous opponent of Net taxes among the nation's governors, a stance that has him at odds with some fellow Republican state executives, notably Utah governor Michael Leavitt.
Writing Clinton, Gilmore warns that imposing "a regressive, depression-era sales tax system" on the Web would block "innovative programs" aimed at forging greater Internet access. And he questioned to Clinton whether any bid to tax the Net - even on behalf of increased online access - is little more than another way to expand a tax-generating system.
"Access for the sake of access is of little benefit if the opportunities to be found on the Internet are highly taxed," Gilmore writes to Clinton. He also tells Clinton new Net taxes would hurt small businesses using the Web to be more competitive inexpensively - and that computers might make it easier for the elderly to shop and get information ordinarily difficult for them to get.
