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TechnologyDaily Mobile
Governors Favor Vote On Net Taxes
by Liza Porteus
The National Governors' Association (NGA) last week praised the Senate for refusing to rush the issue of Internet taxation as part of the broad tax-cut legislation Congress sent to President Bush. In a letter to Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the NGA expressed its appreciation for his leadership and cooperation in working with Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and others to address the issue of how state sales taxes are applied to e-commerce.
Governors said, "there is no need for this Congress to bypass the normal legislative process to extend the moratorium at this time," and added that Congress should resolve all internet taxation issues around the time that the current moratorium expires.
"[The] vote illustrates the building momentum in Congress to level the playing field for all retailers and consumers," NGA Executive Director Raymond Scheppach said in a statement. "We're encouraged by the strong bipartisan support there is to create a fair and balanced sales-tax system for America. The governors realize this is a difficult issue and look forward to continue working with members of Congress as they try to hammer out a compromise bill."
Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., had offered an amendment to the tax-cut bill that would have made the existing ban on Internet access taxes permanent. The issue was not germane to the tax-cut bill, however, and in a procedural maneuver, the Senate voted 88-11 not to consider Smith's proposal.
Dorgan has sponsored a bill, S. 512, that would extend the moratorium for a limited time and give states more leeway in their sales-tax simplification efforts. A Dorgan spokesman last week said the Senate's decision shows "there is not a lot of support for a permanent moratorium."
States Still Hurt By Federal Mandates
In other NGA news, Scheppach testified before two House subcommittees last Thursday on the successes and failures of a five-year-old law prohibiting the federal government from imposing unfunded mandates on states. He said the "spirit of the law has been circumvented" in three cases, including enactment of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
HIPAA, a law designed to simplify the insurance industry, "has become of the largest, single unfunded mandates on states in a long time," Scheppach said. But because HIPAA is part of the Medicaid program, it is exempt from the law banning such mandates. "As we look into the future ... it is important to amend [the law against unfunded mandates] to expand its scope to include taxes, Medicaid and other entitlements, and pre-emption of state regulatory activity," he said.
The other cases of circumvention, he said, include the disproportionate impact that the just-passed repeal of the estate tax will have on states and the exemption of Medicaid from the law against unfunded mandates. Scheppach said the estate-tax repeal would cost states between $50 billion and $100 billion in reduced revenues over the next 10 years.
Science Agency Studies Net Porn
A National Academies of Sciences (NAS) panel and a group that focuses on children, youth and families traveled to Florida this week to study ways to protect children from Internet porn.
The delegation, including members of the NAS panel on computer science and telecommunications, met with students, librarians, youth leaders, program directors, technical managers, parents, teachers and school administrators at various schools. The trip was part of an NAS project called "Tools and Strategies for Protecting Kids from Pornography and Their Applicability to Other Inappropriate Internet Content."
The group will issue a final report focusing on the threats Internet pornography and sexual predators who use the Web pose to children. The report will include: the risks and benefits of various tools and strategies to protect children; an explication of how "packages" of different tools and strategies can enable local approaches to protecting children; and case studies of community approaches to the problem.
The study is expected to provide a foundation for a more coherent and objective local and national debate on the subject. It will avoid making specific policy recommendations that embed particular social values. Congress ordered the study in a 1998 law.
I Love NYC.Gov
New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Wednesday announced the launch of a new NYC.gov Web site. The new site, redesigned and redefined with help from Accenture, gives anyone living, visiting or conducting business in New York unprecedented online access to public services, such as permit filing and information on recreational services.
The new portal offers one-stop shopping for government services that previously could be accessed only at bricks-and-mortar offices or by visiting multiple Web pages. The mayor's office also said the new portal is more interactive and responsive to citizen needs.
Bridging The Boston Divide
Boston last week distributed 70 high-end computers to low-income families in an effort to bridge the so-called "digital divide." The effort was part of the city's "Technology Goes Home" program. The city will track whether the training and tools it provided helps people get better jobs and grades, reports The Boston Globe.
Boston's $5 million effort, funded by a $500,000 federal grant and private donations, seeks to show how access to technology can improve the lives of poor adults and their children. The city will follow the progress of the families via a long-term study developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Silicon Valley-based hardware company iQ, which has local headquarters in Roxbury, Mass., promised 1,000 new computers to the Boston Digital Bridge Foundation, supported by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Microsoft donated the software, Lexmark the printers and Verizon most of the Internet access.
Ed DeMore, the city official who oversees "Technology Goes Home," said benefactor interest heightened after Menino's 1996 State of the City address, in which he emphasized the need for better technology in public schools. "Boston had just as big a profile as New York, L.A. or Chicago but much better politics to do something like this in," DeMore said.
Wining In Texas
It seemed like a simple idea: Allow Texans to buy wine directly over the Internet. But The Dallas Morning News reports that as lawmakers end their legislative session in Austin this week, supporters of unfettered online wine sales have failed -- defeated by a handful of Texas wholesalers whose blueprint to kill the bill was developed long before legislators came to town.
Over the last five months, the bill was debated, killed, resurrected, rewritten and finally passed in a much narrower form. Texas and California vineyards wanted the ban on Internet wine sales lifted, but critics said allowing wineries to ship their products directly to Texans threatens a loss of tax revenue and offers no safeguards against minors buying wine online. Direct-shipping supporters argued that the change would boost Texas' fledgling wine growers, who say current law protects wholesalers and their profits.
Interestingly, the four biggest liquor wholesalers in the state have become among the most generous contributors to Texas candidates. The News reports that in the last year, campaign contributions -- some $10,000 and $25,000 at a time -- have flowed to Texas politicians from the alcohol wholesale liquor industry.
Legislators collected nearly $400,000, and statewide officeholders reaped more than $330,000 from the alcohol industry, according to a review of donations. More than $34,000 was given to members of the state House committee that regulates alcohol. The contributors said they are not trying to buy influence, and the elected officials said hefty donations do not affect their decisions.
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