The
Honorable Bill Frist
Majority Leader
Senate 230
Dear
Senator Frist,
The
Seniors Coalition strongly urges you to support S. 150, The Internet Tax
Non-Discrimination Act. This important
legislation, with the manager’s amendment, would make the existing federal
moratorium against state and local taxes on Internet access, as well as
“multiple and discriminatory” taxes targeting Internet commerce, permanent and
national in scope. The Act would ensure
technological neutrality – protecting senior citizens, consumers and
specifically our members from increased taxes, no matter what technology they
use to access the Internet.
The
Seniors Coalition (www.senior.org) is a
non-profit, 501c(4), non-partisan, education and issue
advocacy organization that represents the interests and concerns of
The
Coalition considers the Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act a very important
issue to our current and future members.
Senior Internet users are the fastest growing segment of new Internet
subscribers. Many seniors suffer from
age-related mobility issues, and the Internet literally opens the world to
them. It is an important mechanism to
allow them to stay connected to family, friends, medical advice, and a wide
array of issues that affect their health and financial security. Increased taxation would create a significant
economic barrier to these seniors since many of them live on fixed incomes with
limited discretionary spending. In fact,
any increased taxation of the Internet would
discriminate against seniors who would have to forego the benefits offered by
this technology because of cost considerations.
The next round of senior citizens – Baby Boomers -- will be more Internet
savvy, and the negative impacts of increased taxation will be even more acute
on
Keeping
the moratorium on Internet access in place will promote economic growth and
innovation in
Respectfully,
David
Herman
Executive
Director