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Bam’s phone-y tax
Last Updated: 10:36 PM, August 15, 2013
Posted: 10:34 PM, August 15, 2013

The road to hell, it is said, is paved with good intentions. Apparently, so is the information superhighway.

Take note of the Obama administration’s latest “for the children” initiative: expanding high-speed Internet for schools across the country. It’s one of those liberal initiatives designed to sound so nice and worthy that only an ogre (or Tea Partier) could oppose it. As with most nice-sounding liberal ideas, the problem is paying for it.

Team Obama recognizes there’s little appetite in Congress for another program. So it’s not even going to try for legislation. Instead the plan is to stick AT&T with the bill. And Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc.

Under the White House proposal, a fee levied by the Federal Communications Commission would fund the program. Supposedly it will work out to only $5 a year per mobile phone and will sunset in three years after it raises the money needed.

There are a lot of ifs. What happens if the fee doesn’t raise enough money? And can we really count on it to sunset?

In 1898, Congress imposed a “temporary” 3 percent excise tax on long-distance service to pay for the Spanish-American War. It finally ended . . .in 2006. Yep, a temporary tax that lasted 108 years.

But the most pernicious aspect of this plan is its built-in sneakiness. To the extent Americans notice the new fee, they are likely to direct their anger at the private carriers rather than the politicians.

New Yorkers know the routine well: As much as 25 percent of the average Con Ed electric bill goes to unrelated city and state government fees. We say: No cellphone taxation without representation

Read more: The Obama administration’s school Internet tax—Editorial - NYPOST.com http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/bam_phone_tax_wvyaTrw2kmBKDPUPiQV1JL#ixzz2c7gUlAPu