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Show A6 The Emery County Review, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 VIEWPOINT Opinion and Letters to the Editor Established January 2, 2007 James L. Davis, Publisher & Editor w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w Colleen A. Davis, Co-Publisher, Office & Advertising Manager Josie Luke, Assistant Editor Lyndsay Reid, Advertising Design Charlotte Williams, Advertising Sales Kathy P. Ockey, Staff Journalist Judi Bishop, Staff Journalist Our Vision To be a valued member of the communities we serve and to be trusted as an honest, truthful and reliable source of news. w w w Our Mission To inform, entertain and provide a public forum for the discussion of events impacting the people of the Emery County area and to inform with news and features relevant to those who call the Castle Valley area home w w w Our Principles We will be ethical in all of our efforts to provide information to the public. We will be unbiased in our reporting and will report the facts as we see them and do our best to focus on the good news of the county, its people, history and way of life. We will be strong and active members of the community and assist in any way that we are able. We will strive to provide the best quality product possible to our readers and advertisers...always. We will verify the details of news we are reporting and if a mistake is made on our part we will correct it immediately. We will always listen to suggestions on how to do our job better. Editorial Submission Guidelines The Emery County Review welcomes and invites letters to the editor and guest opinion articles on public policy or current events. We welcome letters of thanks to individuals who have helped make our community a better place to live, work and play. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit all submissions for space constraints, clarity and errors in fact. Submissions must include author’s name and contact information. Contact information will not be published. Letter’s and opinion articles can be sent to jldavis@theemerycountyreview.com, mailed to The Emery County Review, P.O. Box 487, Orangeville, UT. 84537 or faxed to 435-748-2543. WEB POLL Vacation Mileage In our web poll this week we ask if the increasing price of gasoline has made you and your family change your vacation plans. log on to www.theemerycountyreview.com/links/polls No, Our Vacation Plans Remain the Same Yes, We’re Staying Closer to Home for Vacation Increased Prices Mean We’re Canceling Our Vacation Plans Gas Prices Creating Life Changes James L. Davis You can’t help but notice the price of gas at the pump and where you used to search the signs for gas prices that were dropping, today you find yourself searching for some place, anyplace where gas prices aren’t rising. Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any. What used to be a source of idle conversation, has become a source of strained debate and constant stress. People are worrying and the constant onslaught from the media weighing in on how much worse things are going to get, certainly doesn’t help the collective mood of the country. Things could certainly get worse. In an article in Slate Magazine by Robert Bryce the author tells America to relax, while the prospect of $4 a gallon gas might send a shiver up America’s spine, for the rest of the world, $4 a gallon gasoline is a steal. “When measured on an inflation-adjusted basis, the current price of gasoline today is only slightly higher than it was in 1922. According to the Energy Information Administration, in 1922, gasoline cost the currentday equivalent of $3.11. Today, according to the EIA, gasoline is selling for about $3.77 per gallon, only about 20 percent more than 86 years ago,” Bryce said in his article. While that statement may certainly be true, it probably doesn’t help much for those who are watching their monthly fuel expenses gobble up money for everything else. But if that statement in his article is true, then also true is Bryce’s contention that Congress’ long list of proposals to do something about fuel prices amount to hogwash. Oil prices are controlled by supply and demand, and while it is possible that the oil cartels could pump more oil, it is also equally possible that the increased oil production would be swallowed up by an increased demand. The fact is that America, long the largest oil junky on the planet, is now fighting for its fix with a number of other new oil addicts, namely China and India. In his article Gasoline is Cheap, Bryce contends that gas is dirt cheap compared to gasoline prices in other countries. “British motorists are currently paying about $8.38 per gallon for gasoline,” Bryce wrote in his article. Gasoline at $8.38 a gallon in Britain is just one more reason for me to love being an American. But with news reports that gasoline in America will hit a national average of $4 a gallon by the end of the month and gloomy reports that gas could match the British price by the end of the year, it makes you pause to consider just how much traveling you will be doing. Over the Memorial Day weekend estimates were that Americans would travel less than normal and those of us who did travel would travel shorter distances. So, in a real sense, we are becoming a nation of homebodies. But is that necessarily bad? While those who must travel for their liveli- hood are faced with some grim adjustments, isn’t it possible for the rest of us to adjust in some small way to a new reality where travel isn’t as simple as it used to be, or perhaps even necessary. Maybe, just maybe, with an increase in prices at the pump, we could all spend a little more time at home, shopping at our local grocers, buying from our local hardware stores, supporting our local businesses. The economy of Emery and Carbon counties are inexorably intertwined; we are basically one economy. But the fact is that it is part of the rural psyche for many of us that when we go to shop, we want to go to the city, to get out of town. For a rural Emery County couple, date night includes a trip to Wal-Mart. Price, for the most part, is the City for Emery County residents. But for Carbon County residents, the City is over the mountain. By staying closer to home to do our shopping, businesses in both Emery and Carbon counties can prosper and we can all save a little cash at the pump. With the increased cost for gasoline, we can compensate to a large extent by thinking smaller, developing a true hometown attitude and, perhaps, once in a while, we could even take a walk instead of drive. As painful as that may be. Take a Timeout on Unfair Cell Phone Taxes Jack Kemp Copley News Service It’s no secret that these are uncertain economic times. With the cost of food and energy rising almost daily, one might expect politicians to work overtime to keep taxes on other consumer goods from adding to the cost of living. Unfortunately, some are contemplating doing just the opposite. There’s an opportunity to show concern for these issues with a little gadget we all know, love and depend on - the cell phone. More than 85 percent of Americans use some sort of wireless device. Almost everybody has one, and now every level of government is looking at your cell phone as a revenue stream. And they want a drink. But wireless taxes are already a virtual flood. The typical wireless consumer pays a whopping 15 percent in taxes, fees and surcharges. This is more than double the average of taxes you pay on other goods and services - about 7 percent, according to economist Scott Mackey in the journal State Tax Notes. In fact, from January 2003 to July 2007, the effective tax rate on wireless devices increased four times faster than the rate on other goods and services. According to the national consumer group MyWireless. org, wireless consumers now pay a total of about $21 billion annually. It’s no surprise, then, that a recent poll taken by the group showed 84 percent of wireless consumers favored a break from these unfair new taxes on wireless use. Just look at the litany of taxes and fees on your most recent cell phone bill. How did all those taxes get there? Cell phone taxes generate a lot of revenue quickly, and they are easy to slip by consumers until they suddenly appear on monthly wireless bills. According to the CTIA - the Wireless Association, roughly 259 million Americans now use cell phones, and they send about 1.6 billion text messages per day. People of every race, age and economic status use cell phones. Hispanics and young adults lead the way with hand-held devices, with 84 percent of English-speaking Hispanics using cell phones, compared to 74 percent of white Americans, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Beyond the individual benefits of wireless, the wireless industry has become an increasingly important source of economic growth. In 2004, the wireless industry accounted for $92 billion of U.S. gross domestic product, and today it grows at about 15 percent. If those upward trends continue over the next five years, the wireless sector could become a bigger component of the U.S. economy than both the automobile and agricultural sectors combined. Wireless today is also driving the de- ployment of high-speed broadband Internet connections: According to the Federal Communications Commission, 70 percent of the growth in high-speed lines between June 2006 and June 2007 was attributable to mobile wireless. That is a staggering number when you consider the rate at which many rural and underserved areas of our country are catching up technologically. So the rapid growth of wireless, both as a consumer technology and an economic engine, seems to have made it an irresistible target for tax-hungry politicians. At latest count, 17 states - including the District of Columbia - levy wireless taxes and fees in excess of 15 percent. An unacceptable handful of these states are now imposing wireless taxes in excess of 20 percent. And those taxes rarely fund anything related to telecommunications. Instead, they often go to the general fund to try to balance budgets. In many states and localities, cell phones now face a heavier tax burden than the so-called “sin products,” such as cigarettes and alcohol. And wireless taxes are particularly unfair and regressive, hitting low-income people, fixed-budget families, minority communities and senior citizens the hardest. Fortunately, Congress is considering bringing a sanity check to this out-of-control tax spiral. A bipartisan group of members of Congress led by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) have recently introduced H.R. 5793, the Cell Tax Fairness Act, which would provide a fiveyear timeout on all new discriminatory state and local wireless taxes. While this won’t fix the current tax burden, it is a great start. And as a Democrat from tax-hungry California (on the top 10 list for worst wireless tax states), Rep. Lofgren should be commended for helping to lead the charge with Rep. Cannon, a “free market” conservative Republican. According to Lofgren, the bill “does not take away any existing revenue for state and local governments, it simply calls for a period of tax stabilization that will help further innovation and access in the wireless world.” It is a bipartisan issue among those with economic sense. Out on the tense presidential campaign trail, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has called repeatedly for a ban on unfair new cell phone taxes. Last year, this very same Congress extended the moratorium against discriminatory taxes on Internet access for seven years. Now it’s time for Congress to stop tax hikes on wireless service, to protect millions of consumers and to promote continued innovation and economic growth. Jack Kemp is founder and chairman of Kemp Partners. |
