For those of you who still have landlines, you probably noticed an increase in your monthly charge from June to July and then again from July to August. Why?
There was an increase in three of the taxes and fees on your basic monthly service charge.
The three increases were for
- Federal Access Recovery Charge or FARC,
- Federal Subscriber Line Charge or FSLC, and
- Federal Universal Service Fund Surcharge or FUSFS.
Between June and August, FARC increased from $1.21 to $1.72, FSLC increased from $6.23 to $6.50 and FUSFS from $1.37 to $2.01.
While these increases only amount to $1.42 a month, estimating that there are about 700,000 landlines in use in New Hampshire gives us an increase of nearly one million additional tax dollars heading off to the federal government.
The question we need to ask is, “What value are we the taxpayer receiving in return for the additional funds extracted from our wallets?”
Finally, I will add that I received no notice that this increase was forthcoming. There was no notice from the provider nor our “temporary” hired help in DC; namely, Maggie Hassan, Ann Kuster or Jeanne Shaheen.
Thomas Humphrys is a resident of Brookline, New Hampshire
