CA Looking To Tax Text Messaging

California may soon charge its residents a fee for text messaging, according to a report released by state regulators Tuesday.

The report from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) says the tax on text messaging would likely be a flat fee added to a monthly bill instead of a per text tax and the money would be used to fund programs that make phone service available for low-income residents.

Business groups in the state and wireless carriers are against the proposal.

"It's a dumb idea," Jim Wunderman, president of business advocacy group the Bay Area Council, told the San Jose Mercury News. "This is how conversations take place in this day and age, and it's almost like saying there should be a tax on the conversations we have."

State regulators have been ginning up a scheme to charge a fee for text messaging on mobile phones to help support programs that make phone service accessible to the poor. The wireless industry and business groups have been working to defeat the proposal, now scheduled for a vote next month by the California Public Utilities Commission.