A number of the nation's governors are pressing the U.S. Senate to tighten up what they think is a too-sweeping Internet access definition that's part of a bill to make the current Net access tax moratorium permanent.
These governors already fear a permanent Net tax ban would take billions in revenues away from states, but they're willing to go along with a moratorium extension first, according to Reuters
The National Governors Association sent the Senate a letter in which they pleaded that expanding the understanding of Internet access to include telecommunications services now taxable under law would affect income, property, and other business taxes the industry pays, Reuters said.
"With little time to negotiate an appropriate definition of Internet access," the letter said, "we encourage you to support a simple, temporary extension of the current law to allow Congress, industry, and state and local governments time to fashion a replacement moratorium that is thoughtful and fair."
But both telecommunications industry officials and Capitol Hill staffers, Reuters said, reject that argument, which is derived in large part from a Multistate Tax Commission report saying a House version of the Net tax ban bill would "cost" the states between $4 billion and $9 billion by 2006. Those officials and staffers believe telecommunications services offered increasingly online, including certain telephone connections, weren't included in the definition of access as the MTC claimed.
