Fairfax County, VA Sends Letter
to Senator Allen
to express concerns about HR 49/S 150
September 30, 2003
The Honorable George Allen
204 Russell Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Dear Senator Allen:
As you know, the Internet Tax Non-Discrimination
Act was originally intended to prevent the taxation of Internet
access for a fixed period of time that now is scheduled to expire
on November 1, 2003. Recently, H.R. 49 and your bill, S. 150, were
introduced to make that restriction permanent. However, the House
of Representatives recently passed H.R. 49 with amendments that
expand the ban on Internet access taxes to include telecommunications
services to the extent "such services are used to provide Internet
access." Fairfax County believes that the language of amended
H.R. 49 threatens two traditional, yet separate and distinct, municipal
powers:
- the ability to impose telecommunications taxes or to apply local
utility taxes to the provision of telecommunications services;
and,
- the ability of local governments to impose fees as compensation
for use of public rights-of-way by private companies, such as
telecommunications and cable service providers that use public
property.
Therefore, Fairfax County asks you to amend the proposed language
in S. 150 in order to clarify that by adopting S. 150, Congress
does not intend to:
- interfere with or in any way limit the current imposition or
collection by local governments of any telecommunications taxes
or utility taxes applicable to telecommunications, nor any rights-of-way
fees nor gross percentage fees collected in lieu of rights-of-way
fees; and,
- preempt the current imposition or collection of excise taxes
of general applicability (including telecommunications and utility
taxes) by local governments on services that employ telecommunications,
cellular or cable television facilities, even if those services
offer a means of gaining access to the Internet.
Federal preemption of these state and local taxes and fees, whether
intended or not, will result in immediate financial loss to all
of Virginia’s local governments, and the size of that loss
will increase markedly in the future as more communications shift
to broadband, Internet-based technologies. Moreover, any new broadly
worded federal preemption on state and local taxes and fees on providers
of telecommunications and cable television services could thwart
ongoing efforts in Virginia to simplify the current tax structure.
Thank you for considering our views
on this important matter. If we can provide you with further information,
please feel free to contact my office.
Sincerely,
Katherine K. Hanley,
Chairman
cc: The Honorable John Warner, United States Senator
The Honorable Thomas Davis, III, House of Representatives
The Honorable James Moran, House of Representatives
The Honorable Frank Wolf, House of Representatives
Members of the Board of Supervisors
Anthony H. Griffin, County Executive
Nancy Vehrs, Clerk to the Board of Supervisors
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