NY Dems want to slap 4% tax on beloved services to fund public transport

Tax-obsessed New York Democratic lawmakers whiff of desperation once again, hatching a socialist plan to slap a 4 percent tax on streaming service Netflix and Uber in a doomed attempt to fund the subway system while not raising fares on commuters.

The lack of logic here is impressive. The leftists want to tax New Yorkers’ Netflix subscriptions and their Uber rides so they can save on subway fares. Any way you cut it, it will cost residents more money in a city that already taxes its denizens to death. The tax will also reportedly apply to HBO Max, Hulu, AppleTV+, Paramount+, and others.

The surcharge could potentially bring in $100 million annually for the state’s coffers, the Assembly’s budget proposal predicts. The MTA reportedly needs $600 million this year and at least $1.2 billion next year to balance its books due to the drop-off in ridership following the pandemic. That figure includes the MTA hiking transit fares to an estimated $2.90 per swipe this year with another fare increase set for 2025.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) met privately with legislative leaders this week to hash out an approximately $227 billion spending plan before the current New York state budget expires at the end of March, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“State lawmakers are poised to reject Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to bail out the Metropolitan Transportation Authority by increasing payroll taxes. Her $700 million payroll-tax-increase proposal was paired with a mandate for more contributions from New York City’s government. Democratic leaders in the Legislature are trying to coalesce around an alternative, weighing increases in corporate taxes and many other measures such as a fee on package deliveries, a new surcharge on ride-hailing trips, or taxes on streaming services,” the media outlet reported.

This is not the first time that New York Democrats have imposed a tax on Netflix, according to IndieWire.

“A Netflix rep told IndieWire that a 4 percent local sales tax already applies to Netflix subscribers in New York. This also wouldn’t be the first state to tax someone’s streaming bill; Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington are among the two dozen or so states that apply sales taxes on streamers,” IndieWire reported.

In yet another sign that taxation has gone mad across the country, Netflix has had to reportedly devote an entire page on its website to tax information. It informs subscribers that “Tax rates can vary by country, state, territory, and city, and are based on the applicable rate at the time of your Netflix charge. These amounts can change over time with local tax requirements.”

“A new tax on digital streaming services demonstrates how tone-deaf Democrats are to the affordability issues New Yorkers face,” Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay (R) commented to the New York Post.

“We’re in a unique position of having strong revenues already coming into the state,” he added. “But here we are, poised to add another tax that raises costs on millions of New Yorkers.”

“The taxes in New York state are already extremely high, and we are at a time when our competitiveness for businesses and residents is continually threatened,” Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

Former New York Representative and Republican candidate for governor Lee Zeldin tweeted his take on the news: “Other than the higher taxes, more crime, elimination of gas stoves, less freedom, lower test scores, and other doozies, life in Kathy Hochul’s New York is going just swell for her ‘apostles’ who haven’t left yet.”

 

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