Taxing the Cable TV Companies
Cable television companies should be taxed on the same basis as other franchised operations such as the phone company, the power company and the gas company. These organizations pay franchise fees to do business in their respective areas.
The phone, electric and cable TV all use similar equipment and, in many cases, occupy joint facilities both overhead on poles and underground.
Taxes should be based on physical plants and not “good will” or any other indeterminate factor.
If our tax assessor proceeds with his apparent plans for “phantom taxes,” he’d better be ready to use the same assessment on other franchised operations!
Actually this whole thing reeks of another attempted end run around Proposition 13!
Whatever taxes may be assessed will be passed right on through to the consumers, so who’s kidding whom?
AUDIE ASHCRAFT
Cypress
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