Slot machine 2.0

Hoping to expedite the close of the state's $15 billion budget gap, New York Governor David Paterson is proposing a tax on music and other downloads made online.

To download online content from a site like iTunes, for example, users must create an account with a billing address, so additional fees to New York residents can be applied with relative ease, observes the New York Daily News.

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

Others were less condemning. "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."

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.

Similar proposals were bandied about in both California and the United Kingdom.

No one has formalized it, but New York state could change that. In April it passed a controversial ruling dubbed the "Amazon tax" — a tax on purchases sold online to in-state inhabitants, even if the vendors are based elsewhere. E-big-boxes Overstock and Amazon filed suit against the state.

The Amazon Tax was expected to collect $50 million in its first fiscal year.