It’s not quite a lump of coal, but California regulators may dampen holiday spirits early this year by approving a controversial tax on text messaging.

The proposed text tax, to be voted on in early January by the California Public Utilities Commission, would appear at the bottom of customer bills, and cost average Californians—not wireless carriers or big businesses–approximately $45 million a year. It’s still not clear exactly how the tax would be levied. If approved, the text tax would raise wireless phone bills for tens of millions of Californians young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural. If you text, you’re taxed.

This proposal is disruptive in all the wrong ways. Data shows that text messaging is the most widely-used smartphone feature, and 97 percent of smartphone owners use text messaging at least once a week. Texting has fundamentally changed how people share and receive information in their daily lives, everything from emojis, pictures, and mundane logistics to important state and federal public safety alerts.

For the parents of teenagers, many find texting to be the most reliable means of communication. If you want to share a photo of your newborn with your family should you really have to stop and think – “how much will this cost me?”

Furthermore, the proposed text tax would be one of the most regressive to come from state bureaucrats in years. The obvious consequence is that it would discourage some Californians — most likely low-income consumers — from texting. This is troubling since texting has become an almost universal activity in our society, and an important way for people to stay connected.

Related Articles OMG! Now California wants to tax text-messaging? Nor is the tax necessary. California’s state government is currently flush with a projected budget surplus of nearly $15 billion next year. While perhaps well intentioned, the specific programs that the commissioners are hoping to fund with your tax dollars already has around $1 billion to spend. These programs are not in need of greater funding from texting or any other source, and even if they were, there is already an approved, transparent process at the commission to raise the necessary funds without the need to create new taxes.

Finally, the tax would ultimately prove counterproductive, as consumers are likely to merely shift to internet-based messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, which would remain exempt from the tax.

The California Public Utilities Commission is expected to vote on the proposed text tax at their meeting Jan. 10 in San Francisco. Hopefully our regulators in San Francisco and our policymakers in Sacramento are listening, because California doesn’t need or want a tax on texting.

Jim Wunderman is president and CEO of the Bay Area Council.