State Tax Update Archive
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A Chicken In Every Pot ... To A Computer In Every Lap (David Kralik)

 Maine's Independent Gov. Angus King recently proved he's not independent.  In fact, he's beholden to big government programs.  He recently came up with a scheme to give all 17,000 seventh graders a free laptop by 2002.  As always, Tax Alert must ask, where the money is coming from.

The program would give away a $500 state-funded laptop, made possible by a $65 million endowment, $50 million of which comes from (Surprise!) the surplus.  Also under this plan, each of Maine's 14,000 teachers will receive a laptop, partially paid for by a $250 un-funded mandate on local school districts.  In these times of prosperity, it seems that the surplus is the first place governors look to for their big-spending pet projects.  Tax Alert would like to know: Where one can buy a laptop that cheap, and why the governor decided upon young and irresponsible seventh graders as recipients?

King's desire to be an education governor really doesn't make sense.  His own education budget calls for less spending than what the legislature has settled on, and his overnight solution for better education ignores the fact that students are learning in trailers due to overcrowding.  Further, students must contend with leaky roofs because of a $200 million backlog in school repair projects.  King's plan has support from Dana Connors, president of the Maine Chamber of Commerce, but the Maine Education Association and the Maine School Management Association, along with lawmakers on both sides, have attacked the plan as either half-baked or unaffordable.

"I think it's sinking like a stone," said Rep. William Norbert (D-Portland).  "A great idea for every school, after we repair them and renovate them," said Rep. John Buck (R-Yarmouth).

Since King has so little support inside his state for his ineffective, big-government program he has taken the issue to the national level where it's being applauded by President Clinton and the media.  As he crusades, watch for the "computer in every lap" idea to become a national trend and work now to defeat it because as Democrat Rep. Elizabeth Townsend says, "when I go door-to-door and ask people about their concerns, nobody has ever said to me: 'My seventh-grader doesn't have a laptop. Would you fix that?'"

Ky Gov. Seeks Flat Tax To Replace Cable, Telecom Franchise Fees

In Measure That Has Drawn Support From Cable And Telecom companies, Ky. Gov. Paul Patton (D) proposed a flat 7% consumption-based excise tax for all telecom services -- telephone, wireless telephone, satellite TV, cable and pagers -- that would replace existing sales tax and franchise fees. (Comm Daily, 3/28/00.)

Big Victory At The Final Meeting Of The Advisory Commission On Electronic Commerce in Dallas

Advocates of imposing new tax collection schemes online were defeated in their attempt to use the Commission to advance their cause of giving states and localities the authority to export their tax collection regimes beyond their borders.  These pro-taxation advocates, led by the National Governors Association and the National League of Cities, were flatly rebuffed by the majority of commissioners who recognized that the quickest way to strangle the high-tech economy is by saddling the Internet, its backbone, with new taxes.

The Commission instead approved a proposal by anti-tax and business representatives that will keep the Internet free of burdensome new taxes and regulations, while at the same time urging state and local governments to simplify their Byzantine sales tax systems.  The panel also endorsed the repeal of the federal 3% excise tax on telecommunications, a tax originally instituted as a luxury tax in 1898 to fund the Spanish-American War.

Special recognition goes to the Commission's Chairman, Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, for successfully assembling and holding a majority of the Commission in favor of the anti-tax position.  The Clinton Administration, on the other hand, showed no leadership on the issue at all, as their representatives abstained from every single substantive vote throughout the Commission's final meeting.