Cell tax advancing behind closed doors!!!

Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

On the very first day of the Emergency Legislative Session to address the pandemic and racial injustice — the politicians went straight for a money grab by having a Legislative panel vote to approve a tax on your cell-phone.

So within hours of this Secretive and rushed Special Session starting, the Joint Committee on the First Special Session voted to approve SB 1603 (read SB 1603) which is a tax, collecting $5 million in new taxes from Oregon cell phones. The money is taxing cellular service to pay for private rural broadband — despite $67 million of federal tax dollars going to the same thing in Oregon.

The tax will then go to the House and Senate floor for a vote.

Please call you lawmaker (1-800-332-2313) to oppose the cell-tax SB 1603.

This tax is happening behind closed doors because the public has not been given proper advanced notice of the bills (the Emergency Session was called with only a 6-day notice, the bill number of the actual tax and details was not known until the day before the vote) and the public is not allowed to go into the Capitol to testify or to monitor what is happening.

Here is how the panel voted:

Please call you lawmaker (1-800-332-2313) to oppose the cell-tax SB 1603.