Cook County Families Cannot Afford New Tax
A typical family may have 5 phone lines – a home phone, mom’s cell phone, dad’s cell phone and cell phones for the kids. 

Click here to tell the Cook County Board of Commissioners to Stop the Phone Tax!

Over 5 years, these 5 phone lines will end up costing this family an additional $1260!

Taxes and fees already account for 25% of monthly phone bills. If this phone tax passes, that amount skyrockets to 40% for most families, which is estimated to be the largest percentage nationally.

Businesses will Bail
This new tax would be yet another tremendous blow for businesses throughout Cook County.  Whether you’re a small mom-and-pop store or a large corporation, businesses can’t survive without the ability to communicate to their customers, suppliers, employees and clients.  In this global economy, companies have choices of where they want to locate.  This is a job killing tax that will send companies fleeing to other counties, states and countries.   

Seniors, Low-Income Consumers Will Be Hit Hardest
Just last year, the Citizens Utility Board negotiated a series of calling plans designed to help seniors, low-income consumers and others afford basic telephone service because a telephone is a necessity, not a luxury. Those savings would be wiped out by this tax that would increase phone bills by as much as 131%.

Phone Tax Widens the Digital Divide
According to a recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project,
African Americans are adopting high speed Internet at much higher rates than in years past. In 2005, only 14 percent of African Americans had a high speed Internet connection; as of July 2007, that rate jumped to 40 percent. High tax rates on broadband and phone service will make high speed Internet access less affordable, undoing the important progress made in closing the digital divide.