Louisiana House Wants 15-cent Internet Access Charge

Leave it to the bureaucrats to figure out how to get even more of your hard-earned money.

Rep. Mack "Bodi" White, R-Denham Springs, Louisiana, has sponsored a bill on behalf of the Attorney General for the great state of Louisiana to levy a 15-cent charge on Internet access in order to help fund a program to fight Internet crime, particularly sex crimes against children. While a noble idea, the road to hell is a slippery slope of good intentions.

The fee is being called a "usage fee" (don't you just love that one), but opponents of the measure call it a tax on Internet access. "Today it's Internet access. Tomorrow, what's it going to be? A subscription to DirecTV?" said Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans. There could be a court challenge in light of the fact that federal law prohibits states from taxing Internet access.

Governor Bobby Jindal (R) is in a pickle. He has pushed for tougher penalties against sex offenders, but has opposed anything that looks like a tax. Personally, I hope and pray that Jindal would have the stones to veto it. There are plenty of other measures to punish sickos. And, no, I'm not talking rehabilitating them. That doesn't seem to work. Chemical or physical castration? Yep. Letting the families of the victims they terrorize alone with them in a room full of baseball bats? Yep. Sitting down with them to try to understand why they do such hideous things? NO FRICKIN' WAY!!!

It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Protecting our next generation from deviants is of the utmost importance, but taxing Internet access is not the way to fund it.