NEWS RELEASE

_______________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release Oct. 5th 2011 Contact: Dallas Woodhouse (919) 671-1050

Americans for Prosperity Launches

Stop the Perdue Phone Tax Effort

Free Market group launches campaign to stop Governor-led Utilities Commission from creating new tax on telephone customers
RALEIGH- The North Carolina Chapter of Americans for Prosperity today announced an aggressive campaign to stop the North Carolina Utilities Commission, with its super-majority of Governor Perdue appointees, from creating a new tax on telephone service, used to bail out failing phone companies. According to the News and Observer: The exact amount of the potential monthly billing increase for households and small businesses is a mystery because the matter is tangled up in confidentiality laws designed to protect phone companies. Not even the regulators on the N.C. Utilities Commission - the ones making the decision - can be sure how the public will be affected by the outcome of the case. (Published Wed, Sep 28, 2011) The News and Observer further reported: "That's the dilemma in this thing," said John Garrison, director of the Communications Division of the Public Staff, the state's consumer advocacy agency in utility rate cases. "That's the bottom-line question: Who - and how much - is going to be paying for these costs? The Perdue-led Utilities Commission and the phone companies have come up with a great new plan to ensure their profits when they are losing lines to their competitors lets just tax consumers, said Dallas Woodhouse, State Director of Americans for Prosperity. AFP is launching a new website noperduephonetax.com where taxpayers can contact Governor Perdue and members of the North Carolina Utilities Commission on the issue. On October 18, the Utilities Commission is set to consider a secret plan by the phone companies to establish a fund paid for by taxes on all consumers that only they can draw from. They are usurping taxing authority that should rest with our elected officials in the General Assembly, Woodhouse continued.

While AFP supports reforming access charges to bring in-state long-distance in line with interstate charges, we do not believe consumers should be hit with any new tax to compensate rural carriers, AFP Vice President for Policy Phil Kerpen added. The federal universal service fund is a disaster for taxpayers. It has doubled from $4 billion to $8 billion over the last decade and now imposes a shocking 15.5 percent tax on telephone bills. It would be a severe mistake for North Carolina to create its own fund and hit taxpayers again at the state level. It is especially outrageous that the Public Utilities Commission is considering doing so without the approval of elected officials, Kerpen concluded. This is a familiar fight for AFP in the region, where it has recently fought similar slush fund proposals in Georgia and Tennessee.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a nationwide organization of citizen-leaders committed to advancing every individuals right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and intrusiveness of government is the best way to promote individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens to support restraining state and federal government growth and returning government to its constitutional limits. AFP is more than 1.7 million activists strong, with activists in all 50 states. AFP has 31 state chapters and affiliates. More than 85,000 Americans in all 50 states have made a financial contribution to AFP or AFP Foundation. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org Americans for Prosperity does not support or oppose candidates for public office. ###