News Release
American Legislative Exchange Council
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
ALEC URGES SENATE TO PERMANENTLY BAN TAX ON INTERNET ACCESS
Internet Tax Moratorium Expires November 1
“This could be a watershed event,” said Duane Parde, ALEC Executive Director. “Taxing Internet access will be destructive to interstate commerce and economic growth.”
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the nation’s largest bipartisan, individual membership organization of state legislators with over 2,400 legislator members from all fifty states.
In the late 1990s, ALEC approved a model resolution calling on Congress to extend the federal moratorium on Internet taxation to allow a thorough examination of all aspects of electronic commerce. The legislator group also said that unless there is a fundamental reform of existing tax policy within the constitutional limitations placed on state and local governments' taxing authority, the federal moratorium on Internet taxation should be extended indefinitely.
According to ALEC, while electronic commerce is still in its infancy, this much is clear: no fundamental reform of existing tax policy within constitutional limitations has taken place. In fact, many states are currently collecting taxes on Internet access in violation of the spirit of the Internet tax moratorium.
“Some states see an Internet access tax as a cash-cow panacea of sorts for their ailing budgets,” said Parde. “But an abundance of economic history shows higher taxes kill jobs, entrepreneurship, and economic growth.”
The American Legislative Exchange Council has released several groundbreaking reports on state budgets in recent months: 2003 Mid-Year Review of State Budget Policy (Chris Atkins); Show Me the Money: Budget-Cutting Strategies for Cash-Strapped States (William D. Eggers); Should the Feds Bail Out the States? (Dr. Richard Vedder), and; States Can’t Tax Their Way Back to Prosperity: Fiscal Lessons Learned the Hard Way (Steve Moore).
For more information contact Bob Adams at (202) 742-8516.
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1129 20th fax:
phone: 202-466-3800