Residents brace for higher bills if increase is OK’d

The Desert Sun

Warren Horton spent more than $7,000 installing a high-efficiency refrigerator and air conditioning system in his Cathedral City home, trying to drive down his electric bills as low as they could go.

Now he fears those bills could rise again if the California Public Utilities Commission approves a rate restructuring plan from Southern California Edison, which covers roughly the western half of the valley.

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Bill Would Gut Telecom Regulation, May Cost Local Governments $70 million

Contact: Bruce Mirken, Greenlining Institute Media Relations Coordinator, 510-926-4022; 415-846-7758 (cell)

SACRAMENTO – As the Senate Appropriations Committee prepares to consider SB 1161, legislation to deregulate Internet-based phone services, The Greenlining Institute urged senators to take a close, hard look at the measure’s fiscal impact.

A recent California Public Utilities Commission staff analysis found that the bill, by exempting Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services from the Utility Users Tax, could cost local governments roughly $70 million.

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Contact: Bruce Mirken, Greenlining Institute Media Relations Coordinator, 415-846-7758 (cell)

FRESNO, CALIFORNIA – At its public meeting today in Fresno, the California Public Utilities Commission postponed voting on whether to oppose SB 1161, legislation that threatens the CPUC’s ability to protect millions of telephone customers.

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Fierce Enterprise Communications
by: Chris Rizo

Industry-backed legislation that would bar California officials from regulating Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service in the Golden State drew opposition this week from lawyers at the California Public Utilities Commission.

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MEDIA ADVISORY
May 8, 2012

Contact:
Bruce Mirken, Greenlining Institute Media Relations Coordinator, 510-926-4022; 415-846-7758 (cell)
Mindy Spatt, Communications Director, The Utility Reform Network (TURN) , 415-929-8876, ext. 306

FRESNO, CALIFORNIA – At a rare public meeting in Fresno on May 10, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will consider whether to take a position on telecommunications industry-sponsored legislation that threatens vital protections for telephone consumers. Consumer advocates from around the state will join local leaders in opposing the bill, and will hold a press conference immediately after the meeting.

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PressTV

A report released Tuesday from the Greenlining Institute says that Apple Inc., which reported profit of $13 billion in its latest quarter, paid just 9.8 percent of its 2011 income in taxes.

Apple, the world’s most valuable company, is one of many blue-chip tech companies whose 2011 federal income taxes checked in at something well below the marginal 35 percent corporate rate.

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Law.Com
by: Catherine Dunn

How much does Apple, the world’s most valuable company, pay in taxes? About 9.8 percent—less than a third of the U.S.’s 35 percent top corporate income tax rate—according to a report being published Tuesday (aka, Tax Day). That’s down from Apple’s tax rate of 24.8 percent in 2009 and 14.7 percent in 2010.

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The Huffington Post
by: Alexander Eichler

How much of your income went to taxes this year?

There’s a decent chance Apple Inc. paid a smaller share.

That’s the contention of a report released Tuesday from the Greenlining Institute, a research and public policy non-profit based in Berkeley, Calif. The report argues that Apple, which reported profit of $13 billion in its latest quarter, paid just 9.8 percent of its 2011 income in taxes. Apple, the world’s most valuable company, is one of many blue-chip tech companies whose 2011 federal income taxes checked in at something well below the marginal 35 percent corporate rate.

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TR’s State Newswire

The Public Utilities Commission released a draft decision today approving an application filed by Cox California Telcom LLC seeking authorization from the commission so that it can move forward with its proposed internal company reorganization.

Last year, the company asked the PUC to approve a plan under which Cox will be transferred from CoxCom LLC to Cox CA pursuant to an internal corporate reorganization within the Cox network of companies. Upon completion of the reorganization, Cox CA will provide cable television and high speed Internet services in California.
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TR’s State Newswire

Congress needs to clarify the FCC’s authority to enforce network neutrality requirements and the FCC needs to strengthen those requirements for wireless Internet access, or “millions of low-income Americans and communities of color” could be stuck in “online slow lanes” in a form of “Internet apartheid,” according to the Greenlining Institute.
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