The Louisiana State House of Representatives has taken the first step toward instituting a state Internet tax. House Bill 569, introduced by Rep. Mack “Bodi” White (R-Denham Springs), would exact a 15-cent per month tax on all consumers in the state that access the Internet. The money would then be funneled into a pot for Attorney General Buddy Caldwell to fight Internet crime, chiefly, pursuing child predators; this is a laudable goal. However, the proposed funding mechanism presents serious problems.

It’s detestable that protecting our children from predators has to wait while politicians play games with the tax code; the attorney general should have had this enforcement in place long ago. The examples of waste, fraud and abuse in Louisiana government spending are enough to make anyone sick. Why is it that instead of reining in wasteful spending—such as $230,000 for six museums, including the Louisiana Political Hall of Fame and Museum or $4 million to subsidize the Tournament Players Club golf course in Avondale—Baton Rouge is once again trying to suck more money out of taxpayer’s pockets?

Justice Louis Brandeis has supplied us with sage words that should guide our reflection on this issue. He wrote, “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent … The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” Supporters of HB 569 are most definitely full of zeal and well-meaning. However, their plan to tax Internet access in order to achieve their goals is a threat to Louisianans’ personal liberty and economic prosperity, and thus presents the very danger that Brandeis counseled against.

Even the simplest economic models tell us that you get less of whatever you tax. The last thing Louisiana should be trying to do is discourage Internet access. Harnessing the increased productivity, egalitarian dissemination of information and near instantaneous communication capabilities of the Internet must be at the heart of Louisiana’s economic recovery. The most recent figures show that the Pelican State now has its highest unemployment rate since Hurricane Katrina. The state must foster innovation, job creation and entrepreneurship in order to right their ship; all things that would be hampered by taxing Internet access.

Additionally, while a 15-cent tax may seem a small sum to pay for increased vigilance toward child predators, that argument presents a false choice. Not only are there numerous other ways to fund such a worthwhile initiative, but the admittedly small access fee sets a dangerous precedent. Taxes are almost always put in place with small price tags at the onset and they are raised in similarly small increments. In 1861, the country’s first income tax was installed at 3 percent, a bearable number at the time but one that has opened the door to insufferable demagoguery and manipulation of private property ever since. Allowing the Internet to become a new funding mechanism for big government would only encourage incremental degradation of liberty to creep into one of the last untaxed realms of commerce in this country. For this reason alone, the proposal should be rejected.

HB 569 has a tough road ahead of it. The State Senate still has to take up the measure, and if it clears the upper chamber, Governor Bobby Jindal has already expressed his opposition to the bill. The governor’s office had exactly the right response to this plan: “While we absolutely support cracking down on sex offenders that prey on our children, we’re opposed to raising taxes on the people of Louisiana.” Rejecting the false choice between Internet taxes and prosecuting Internet crimes is the first step toward defeating this proposal.

The Internet has been the engine of economic growth and increased productivity wherever it has been allowed to flourish. Louisiana risks threatening that success and its own prosperity if it enacts this well-meaning but flawed legislation.