Conn. Publishers Fight Circulation Sales Tax

By: Lucia Moses A circulation sales tax set to take effect April Fools' Day is no joke to newspaper publishers in Connecticut, one of many states where legislators recently have pressed for media taxes to offset budget deficits.

The Connecticut Daily Newspapers Association is "trying like mad" to get repealed a 6% tax on newspaper and magazine sales that was enacted as part of a deficit package, said Executive Director Richard King.

Members hope to convince lawmakers that the headache of collecting the sales tax won't be worth the revenue gained, which it estimates at $12 million a year, far less than the government's estimate of $68 million annually. King is especially worried that the tax would apply to rack sales, in which case papers would have to pay it themselves.

King is encouraged by Gov. John G. Rowland's opposition to the tax, but added, "Trying to predict what the Legislature will do under a budget crunch is almost impossible."

Seventeen other states already have circulation taxes, in most cases on home delivery, rack sales, and mail subscriptions, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

While Arkansas legislators also are considering a tax on newspaper subscriptions, both they and their counterparts in Texas are among the latest to propose taxes on advertising time and space. "We're going to use every argument we can ... to convince them our argument is correct," said Dennis Schick, executive director of the Arkansas Press Association, which also is fighting a slew of proposals to weaken public access to information -- in some cases motivated by concerns about homeland security.

In Utah, papers are celebrating, at least temporarily, the death of a proposed levy on newspaper sales. Michael J. Fox, executive director of the Utah Press Association, credited "an amazing effort" by many daily and weekly newspapers that bombarded their local representatives with phone calls for helping defeat the measure. In the end, the final budget didn't require the tax, he said.

Well aware that the measure could come up in the next legislative session, Fox is preparing to fight it again, though.
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