{"id":25029,"date":"2019-02-20T11:03:18","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T17:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=25029"},"modified":"2019-02-20T11:03:18","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T17:03:18","slug":"bill-would-require-voter-approval-for-wireless-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=25029","title":{"rendered":"Bill would require voter approval for wireless taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Municipalities could levy additional taxes on wireless services only with voter approval under a bill considered Feb. 19 by the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Tony Vargas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB550, introduced by Omaha Sen. Tony Vargas, would require a municipality to secure voter approval before imposing a local sales tax on wireless services. Vargas said other Midwestern states provide the same services at a much lower cost to consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only does Nebraska have the fourth highest tax rate in the country when it comes to cell services, it is far and away the highest in the region,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy are Nebraska taxes so much higher than every other state?\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill would make additional changes to taxes and fees imposed on wireless services, including:
\n\u2022 lowering the enhanced wireless 911 surcharge from 70 cents to 35 cents;
\n\u2022 eliminating the prepaid wireless surcharge; and
\n\u2022 exempting wireless service from a surcharge used to fund the state\u2019s telecommunications relay system.<\/p>\n

Chris Peterson, representing T-Mobile, spoke in support of the bill. Nebraska\u2019s wireless tax burden is exceedingly high, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when carriers are expanding and improving their networks … high taxes deter business growth and expansion,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cCurtailing these high taxes would reduce business uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norman Weberka of Brainard opposed the bill. The enhanced wireless 911 surcharge will fund important technological advances in the way the deaf and hard of hearing community interact with first responders, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral years ago, Nebraska took action to establish a relay system statewide so deaf people would have access to phone services,\u201d Weberka said. \u201cBut if they don\u2019t have the money to make those services accessible, the deaf and hard of hearing community may be in the dark again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representing the Nebraska Public Service Commission in opposition to the bill was Commissioner Tim Schram. LB550 would reduce funding for public safety and next-generation 911 by 22 percent, he said, while providing minimal tax relief to consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would turn back the clock on the Legislature\u2019s unanimous decision last year to move forward with next-generation 911 services in Nebraska,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Municipalities could levy additional taxes on wireless services only with voter approval under a bill considered Feb. 19 by the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22],"tags":[184],"class_list":["post-25029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transportation-and-telecommunications","tag-sen-tony-vargas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25030,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25029\/revisions\/25030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}