You may have seen the following bit on the news:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeE2xJfFiUM&feature=youtube_gdata
Andrew Coolidge, candidate for Chico City Council, has got the issue onto the news, good for him. This is the kind of candidate I can support in November – a regular citizen who’s actually out there DOING SOMETHING!
Coolidge points out that Ann Schwab is out of touch with the reality most of her constituents live – she thinks the average phone bill is only about 50 bucks. No, Pollyanna Schwab, that’s about the lowest cell phone bill you can get – is she talking about pre-paid cards? Those will also be taxed. My family gets the cheapest package available, and for the four of us it’s just about exactly $98 a month. And that’s the strip-down package. I know plenty of people who pay more, and Coolidge estimated high bills of $200 plus. I believe it.
So, under Ann’s phone tax, my family will pay almost $4.50 more, a tax that goes into the General Fund, which can be used for ANYTHING, including the “employee share” of benefit and pension premiums.
That’s the other problem I had with the story. When Alan Marsden ran this story, he quoted Ann as saying the money would go to “public safety”. In the ballot argument she wrote in favor of raising your taxes, she says the money will go to public safety. Well, that’s all nice and everything, but that’s not what the measure says. The measure doesn’t promise anything of the sort. The measure only promises to place a 4 and a half cent tax on your cell phone.
There’s alot that’s wrong with this phone tax, and I’ll be posting more information as the days go by.
And tonight, don’t forget, Toby Schindelbeck will be making his request for more disclosure from Finance Mis-Director Jennifer Hennessy. He will need support at the dais. This request is scheduled for the end of the meeting, under “Reports and Communications.”
Chico Taxpayers Association 
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