As the Associated Press put it recently, “Talk of a New York tax increase just got a little, er, hotter.” But seriously, at a time when the nation is about to spend $787 billion on a so-called “stimulus,” new taxes on top of what we will already be paying is scandalous. New York is going to go through very hard times, and new taxes on digital downloads will only make things worse. In a recent story by NPR, the hosts noted that to avoid the tax, porn makers could just leave the state. Such a move might make local conservatives happy (although they are unhappy with the tax because they see it as legitimizing porn), but it would indeed push more businesses out of the state (as was the case with overstock.com) and ironically harm tax revenues in the long run.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.