Financing Broadband Access Should Not Entail Taxing Broadband Access

[Commentary] A federal push to expand access to high-speed internet is incongruous with and state and local governments increasing their taxes on that service. Our federal government does not think this is desirable and is prepared to make a sizeable expenditure to increase access to high-speed broadband. To turn around and have another government entity tax the service it is subsidizing--and to use the money not to fund internet access in its community but treat it as general revenue, as Eugene (OR) does--defeats a rare bipartisan goal.

A responsible, rational government would discuss ways to pay for expanding internet access at the same time it strategized about how to achieve such a thing, of course. If we did have such a government it is a safe bet that it would not impose a new tax on the very people we are trying to encourage to acquire high speed internet access.

[Ike Brannon is president of Capital Policy Analytics and is a visiting fellow at the Cato Intsitute]