10 March 2009

The "Fun Tax"

New Yorkers are alarmed at the prospect of a new amusement tax that would be imposed on everything from movie tickets to bowling games. Opponents are calling the proposed levy a "fun tax" to make it sound more awful, but if it's a fun tax, it isn't even anything new. How do things stand now? People are screaming about a tax on movie tickets, but the same people take home DVDs that they paid sales tax on. They scream about a tax on bowling, but how many have game boxes of some sort at home, that they paid tax on, and play games on them that they paid tax on? So by all means protest. There's room for debate over an amusement tax. But don't bamboozle people by acting as if there's never been a tax on "fun" before.

4 comments:

hobbyfan said...

It's like scraping the bottom of the barrel of ideas on how to reduce the budget deficit. Taxing recreational events, like bowling, for example, is not an answer.

Anonymous said...

Well, a legislator from Brooklyn just proposed a "pole" tax that would impose a $10 tax on patrons of stip clubs and nudie bars. Talk about a "fun" tax.

But since I don't bowl, feel free to tax the hell out of it. Although I suspect they'd make more money if they legalized marijuana and taxed it similarly to tobacco.

hobbyfan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
hobbyfan said...

For them to legalize marijuana, they'd probably have to abolish the Rockefeller Drug laws, and I don't think they want to do that.