Comments (14)

• How else are they going to pay for the tax breaks they give to movie companies

  Comment by just a thought — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 10:41am PST  Reply to this post

• This is one of the most ridiclous things I’ve ever seen a politician do. I understand the situation here, but don’t tax simple things that have nothing to do with the solution like Ipod taxes, haircut taxes, and soda taxes.

  Its things like this that may make Guliani a shoo-in for Governor in 2010. Shocking but true.

  Comment by Arrested Development/30 Rock Fan — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 10:56am PST  Reply to this post

• Who would actually collect on a download tax? The state where the download occurred or the state where the server is located?

  Comment by Glassman — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 11:03am PST  Reply to this post

• Being saddled with additional taxes is yet another issue facing the entertainment industry. Moreover, higher costs could drive consumers to more counterfeit products. Not blaming Paterson since he needs to close the gap somehow. But added costs could impact demand. To repeat a quote I posted a few days ago from a former defense secretary:

  “There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know.”

  Comment by splinter — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 11:07am PST  Reply to this post

• That should drive business out of New York, at the absolute worst time. I read somewhere that housing prices in New York City are starting to enter the realm of reality after years of hyperinflation, but now they can’t get people to move in.

  This will not help.

  Comment by Furious D — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 11:12am PST  Reply to this post

• Maybe the governor should stop giving tax breaks to the movie companies. They all line up with inflated budgets with no real return to the state coffers

  Comment by just a thought — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 11:25am PST  Reply to this post

• the day there’s so much as a one cent tax on iPod downloads will be my last day of using the service.

  Comment by B. Real — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 11:51am PST  Reply to this post

• Hey, you think that’s bad paying those taxes, wait until we start paying a TV watching tax of several hundred dollars a year like they do in England…don’t laugh, it could happen!

  Comment by Cathy — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 11:55am PST  Reply to this post

• Do you really think a few cents on a song will stop folks from downloading? Why give a huge break to a digital format over a tangible asset ? It’s a song, a film, a show and no matter what form it takes to get into one’s ear or eyeballs it gets there and should pay for the stuff we need like roads, schools, old people.
  Why does a monopoly like Ticketmaster get their insane take (about 18.5%) and not the State?

  Everyone screams for FEMA to get to storm battered but no one thinks we should pay for it.this is crazy.

  BTW-deflation is going on, the cost of stuff is coming down.

  Comment by TSL — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 12:59pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’ve had my own S-corp production company for over a decade. I closed it this year to avoid the sure-to-come rise in Corp. Taxes here in CA.

  I am in the process of buying property in Nevada to reopen my business there.

  CA is the worst for businesss. It’s sad, I’m a native Californian and I don’t see how I can live and work here and continue to support the lame, poor spending of Sacramento.

  Spending must END. It’s destroying cites, counties and states.

  Comment by Jackie P. — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 1:30pm PST  Reply to this post

• How you tax radio?

  Comment by Erin D. — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 1:59pm PST  Reply to this post

• Cathy: “Hey, you think that’s bad paying those taxes, wait until we start paying a TV watching tax of several hundred dollars a year like they do in England…don’t laugh, it could happen!”

  It’s not a tax. The BBC is publicly funded as are comparable public networks in Europe. For that, they have to uphold a certain standard and justify spending, etc. Big difference to a “tax”.

  Comment by IDM — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 2:15pm PST  Reply to this post

• Here’s the reality: California will never pass any of these ridiculous taxes. The legislature requires a 2/3 vote to pass any tax increase, and the Republicans are adamantly against them. New York is cutting its’ own throat, but that is what happens when liberals take over.

  Change is coming, but it won’t be what we expect.

  Comment by savvydude — Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 7:52pm PST  Reply to this post

• Seems like a surefire way to push people to file sharing sites where they won’t pay a tax… or anything else.

  Comment by Anonymous — Thursday December 18, 2008 @ 2:54pm PST  Reply to this post