Cell Phone Tax Windfall Is Another Reason to Roll Back Tax Rates

Economy |
By David Stokes | Read Time 1 minute

The Post-Dispatch reports that AT&T has agreed to settle the lawsuit brought by cities for back taxes from cell phone bills:

The proposed agreement with more than 300 Missouri municipalities could end six years of litigation between AT&T Mobility, a division of AT&T Inc., and the cities’ gross receipts tax.

This is on top of previous settlement agreements with Verizon and US Cellular. Here is a link to the list of cities and how much they are getting from AT&T alone. Courtesy of Senator Mike Gibbons, here is a list of cities within St. Louis County that did not roll back their tax rates in response to reassessment this year, because they were below the authorized cap.

If your hometown is on both lists, you should consider asking them some serious questions about why they are receiving more money from reassessment, along with this cell tax windfall, and still not rolling back tax rates.

About the Author

David Stokes is a St. Louis native and a graduate of Saint Louis University High School and Fairfield (Conn.) University. He spent six years as a political aide at the St. Louis County Council before joining the Show-Me Institute in 2007. Stokes was a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute from 2007 to 2016. From 2016 through 2020 he was Executive Director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, where he led efforts to oppose harmful floodplain developments done with abusive tax subsidies. Stokes rejoined the Institute in early 2021 as the Director of Municipal Policy. He is a past president of the University City Library Board. He served on the St. Louis County 2010 Council Redistricting Commission and was the 2012 representative to the Electoral College from Missouri’s First Congressional District. He lives in University City with his wife and their three children.

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