Has everyone heard about the proposed taxes in New York? I don’t live in New York, I do go there often, as does any person in Jersey, so I feel some of these taxes will affect us here. First let’s just say that New York is already super expensive. Just buying a simple bagel and orange juice can be about 1-2 dollars more expensive than in Jersey. Fast Food chains are expensive and let’s not even talk about the cost of drinks in the club. It is downright high way robbery. But dammit if the city is a fun place to hangout!
Well, recently Governor Paterson, who has taken post after Spitzer was removed because of his illicit call-girl activities, has proposed almost 88 new taxes to make up 18 billion dollar deficit in the New York budget. The state of NY was so reliant on funds from Wall street, but now that those execs have caused their own demise us poor folk must pay. If that isn’t the resounding theme of 2008.
Basically he wants to impose a “digitally delivered entertainment” tax which could include iTunes downloads and services like NetFlix among others. We will herein refer to this as the “iPod tax.” He also wants to tax soda and non-nutritional beverages (think beer and wine :0) or any beverage that is less than 70% juice. This will be referred to as the “obesity tax.” There used to be a tax break in NY on clothing that cost under $110, but he wants to axe that. Additionally he proposes a tax on cable and satellite TV and a Taxi tax. Wow, lots of taxes on the average New Yorker.
THere have been lots of outrage regarding these taxes, saying that he wants to nickel and dime the average person, versus taxing the people who have the money, i.e. the now derelict Wall St. execs who despite the collapse still received thousands of dollars in bonuses. I have a few things about this iPod tax and obesity tax. There have already been polls released that say that people aren’t going to download less despite being taxed more and I can’t say I blame the. With more and more things becoming increasingly expensive people need a way to entertain themselves, and buying actual cds is just kind of dated. And they don’t last as long. IF you really like a CD and you play it a lot it can get scratched and damaged fairly quickly. You can not scratch a download. I do question how will the regulate this? Can a NY’er just cross over th e tunnel and make their download at a Starbucks in Jersey to avoid the tax? this would increase transportation revenue, LOL. NO, but seriously, how will they? For some NY’ers it is very very easy to get to Jersey via the Path or the NJ transit. Granted it will cost them, but is it worth it?
Obesity tax? Harsh name, but really is this necessary. Soda and other non necessity food items are already taxed, at least in NJ so how much more are you going to do it. I read an article on the NYtimes that said that this is really a benefit to people, just like the smoking tax, because despite the health risks people won’t stop until its money involved. Hmm.. that made me think a lot about the health risks associated with drinking. The tax won’t go to diet sodas, which can be more harmful than regular soda due to the affects of that devil known as aspartame. How does he see diet soda as a necessity? Seriously? ICK. Do I think this will cause people to cut down on liquid calories? No. I think that more people will buy in bulk. It will be cheaper to buy a 12 pack and bring your own soda vs. buying a 20 oz. every day. People are not going to give up habits like that easily. I say maybe 2 % of the the NY “Coke crew” (yes I made that up, that is for people who have to have their Coke with every meal, we all know someone like that) will actually cut back on their soda drinking.
My only question is… how does this affect the cost of a Non-Fat Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks in Penn Station??