Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Internet Tax Approved By Louisiana House

Posted by timothy on from the well-they-have-a-napoleonic-system dept.

Stinky Litter Box writes "WWL-TV in New Orleans reports that the Louisiana House voted 81-9 on Thursday to propose that a '15-cent monthly surcharge should be levied on Internet access across Louisiana to fight online criminal activity.' Can you say 'slippery slope?' The good news is that Gov. Jindal opposes such a tax. Full disclosure: I grew up in south Louisiana and worked for WWL-TV in the late '70s."

9 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. Awesome! Wait, Children's Protection? by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Rep. Mack "Bodi" White, R-Denham Springs, said he sponsored the bill for Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, to raise money to finance a division in Caldwell's office that investigates Internet crimes, particularly online sex crimes against children.

    I agree that sex crime against children are very very bad but I think that if you look at the scope and size of the problems that plague the internet and ranked them in order, you'd find many other things precede sex crimes against children. Like Internet Fraud and Identity Theft. How much money do people lose to things like that? Hint: A lot.

    I'm sick and tired of thinking of the children, let's think about everybody for a while. The lil' bastards don't even pay taxes and they're the motivation behind 50% of the legislation in this country.

    --
    My work here is dung.
  2. Use by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Thank goodness legislatures have the discipline to only use funds for the reason they gave in the justification.

  3. Make 'em pay by oneirophrenos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't live in Louisiana (or the US), but I'd be quite cross if they started charging me because other people like to watch images of naked kids.

    1. Re:Make 'em pay by noundi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Let's disregard the article for one second here. How do you think crime fighting is funded in general?

      --
      I am the lawn!
    2. Re:Make 'em pay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Okay, another scenario.

      Traffic Cops - Are they funded by Car Tax? No
      Homoicide Detectives - Are they funded by Death Tax? No

      Why should Internet Cops be different? As far as I'm concerned, in my workplace, I had to modernise and use computers to keep in the market place.
      Did my "core" business change? No
      Did my fees change? No

      Why do cops need to tap a new revenue source to battle online crime. It's their job to fight crime regardless of where it is, and they are funded by the state. State's coffers getting scarce? Not my problem. They already get a piece of the action when I get my wages. They get a piece of the action when i "buy" broadband/computer/electricity. What else next?

      Oh sir, you want to use that electricity to power your kettle to make coffee? That'll be a 15cent tax. Why? Boiling hot coffee was used in a crime, so we need more tax to pay for the cops to investigate coffee burn crimes.

  4. Re:I'm confused by poetmatt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What do you think 15 cents is when it is misappropriated and charged to an entire state/abused/shown to not have matched the original intent at all?

    answer: a whole lot of money going nowhere. See FEMA, many useless taxes in general, etc.

    Really, 15 cents sounds like small amounts, but so did the original 3% or whatever for taxing gasoline. Now about 1/4 of gasoline cost is tax. How's that working out? Money well spent?

  5. Re:Awesome! Wait, Children's Protection? by castironpigeon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bring up an emotionally charged topic like children's protection and you can enact any half-baked political action. They killed Socrates this way, they can sure as hell ratchet down internet rights this way.

    --
    mmmm...forbidden donut
  6. Dedicated revenue streams are gimmicks by netbuzz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of course it's tough to vote against "protecting the children," but if this expenditure is necessary it should take a place in line with every other legitimate need and wait for its share of the income tax. Special interests are going to be lined up around the block to try this one in La.

  7. Re:Awesome! Wait, Children's Protection? by rohan972 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    HOW did they explain the whole concept of slavery for the... 10,000 years BEFORE Darwin then?

    Perhaps because much of the history of slavery has not been race based. People have been sold as slaves for debt, and slaves have often been a prize of war, those wars often being fought over political boundaries rather than racial differences.

    --
    http://marriedmansexlife.com/