iPod Tax? Has NY Governor Lost His Mind?

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Hoping to remedy New York's $15 billion budget nightmare, New York Governor David Paterson has proposed a tax on music and other online downloads.

The New York Daily News points out that, in order to download online content from iTunes, users must create an account with a billing address so these additional fees to New Yorkers would be easy to implement.

When I first read this, I admit, I thought it was a joke. New York citizens would seem to agree...

"It just seems like an arbitrary thing," complained Josh Hertz of Astoria, Queens. "Just a way for them to make money."

Others seemed to be living in la-la-land. "The world is pretty much collapsing. You can tax my iTunes," said Antoinette Mullins of Far Rockaway, Queens. "I know the economy is in dire straits."

I have a better idea. Let's take those trillions of dollars that the government is giving to large financial firms and spread that out among every American citizen. Then, we can all just pay off our mortgage and stimulate the economy....but I digress...

Some citizens suggested that if prices increase as a result of the proposed tax, they would download less and possibly go back to using compact disks. I hope no one actually paid for that study.

New York has been known to implement such ideas in that past. Just this past April, a controversial ruling passed that was dubbed the "Amazon tax", which was a tax on purchases sold online to NY residents (even if the vendors are based elsewhere). The Amazon tax was forecast to collect a whopping $50 million in its first full year.

Amazon AND Overstock filed suit against the state over this ludicrous legislation.

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