Last updated April 12, 2019
Used cell phone users in Madison County can breathe a sigh of relief following the announcement that there will not be an increase in cell phone tax. Nor will the county be subjected to a new tax on landlines.
The state has made a “firm commitment to no new taxes”, says Assemblyman Bill Magee D-11, who was the one who introduced to the Assembly the home rule tax requests of Madison County Supervisors. Madison County is not the only such area to be spared the addition of a tax hike for used cell phones either, with many other counties that had asked for an increase in taxes or the creation of new taxes also being given an answer firmly in the negative. “People are already taxed more than enough,” Magee points out. “We don’t want to pass on more taxes to them.”
Jessica DeCerce, the communications director for Senator David Valesky, says that support for tax hikes just was not on the cards in the Legislature and that it is unlikely to even consider changing its stance in the slightest until January (when the next legislative session is staged) at the earliest.
A bill allowing Madison County to continue to add the extra one per cent to sales tax that it has been doing for seven years since 2004 was granted just last month. The extra one per cent will continue to be added to sales tax in the county until at least 2013.