Baltimore city $4 cell phone tax ‘discourages investment’ in innovation: AT&T rep

If you’re a cell phone user with a Baltimore billing address, you’re paying a $4 per month tax in addition to state and federal charges, according to a report from the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation. The city tax has been in place for years and routinely gets cited as a high burden.
Maryland ranks 12th overall in terms of the steepness of its combined federal, state and local rate of mobile phone taxation.
Read the report here.
It’s the “most regressive form of taxation,” said Denis Dunn of AT&T during Tuesday’s panel discussion on what must be done to take Maryland to the “next level” in tech. Though clearly any mobile carrier’s business benefits from lowering the tax burden for its product, Dunn focused his remarks on the greater burden on poorer families, who are fast adopting smartphone technology.
“Don’t tax things that discourage investment” in innovation and technology, he said. Montgomery County has a $3.50 tax, he added.
That hasn’t discouraged AT&T from investing in its mobile infrastructure in state: the telecom firm has spent $650 million in Maryland over the past two years.