Friday, April 23, 2010

“Quinn sings different tune on music tax - Chicago Tribune” plus 3 more

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“Quinn sings different tune on music tax - Chicago Tribune” plus 3 more

Quinn sings different tune on music tax - Chicago Tribune

Posted: 22 Apr 2010 06:47 PM PDT

Gov. Pat Quinn backed off a proposal to tax music and video downloads to help balance the state budget, saying Thursday he still believes raising the income tax is the best way to generate money.

The governor floated the idea of taxing downloads from online services such as iTunes in a meeting with legislative leaders this week, but the proposal received a cold reception in Springfield. On Thursday, Quinn said that he was simply offering suggestions on ways to solve the state budget problem and does not support the plan, which his administration estimated would have generated up to $10 million a year.

"We had a meeting with the legislative leaders the other day, we made a list of all the possible things that could happen," Quinn said. "I didn't advocate that. I'm not interested in doing that, frankly."

Instead, Quinn is pushing to raise the state income tax from 3 percent to 4 percent — a 33 percent increase in the tax rate — though lawmakers have been skeptical of that idea as they prepare to face voters in the November election. Quinn has tried to paint the tax increase as necessary to prevent massive cuts to education, and thousands rallied for his cause at the state Capitol on Wednesday.

"I've proposed a 1 percent surcharge for education off the income tax," Quinn said. "That's what I'm for. I think it should be very clear that we should focus on that because that's where you can get significant resources to save our schools from radical cuts."

Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. Bill Brady said Quinn should also drop his income tax hike push because it would hurt the state's already weakened economy.

Brady also said that when he releases his tax returns on Friday, they'll reflect that it has been a tough couple of years in the home-building business.

"They will show that my family business is struggling in an economy that has been a burden on all businesses in Illinois. It has not been good," said Brady, whose downstate construction business made him wealthy during the boom years of the 1990s.

Brady is releasing his tax returns after Quinn pressured him to do so. The governor released his tax record on Tuesday. Reporters will get a chance to look at Brady's tax records for three hours Friday afternoon at his Springfield campaign office.

mcgarcia@tribune.com

dheinzmann@tribune.com

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Quinn not interested in taxing music, video downloads - Chicago Sun-Times

Posted: 22 Apr 2010 12:14 PM PDT

SPRINGFIELD -- Gov. Quinn abruptly hit the delete button today on a controversial proposal to tax movie and video downloads after his administration pitched the idea to legislative leaders this week.

"I want to make that clear. We had a meeting with the legislative leaders the other day. We made a list of all the possible things that could happen. I didn't advocate that. I'm not interested in doing that, frankly," Quinn told reporters in Chicago.

"Our department provided those ideas to them, but that's not what I'm for. I'm for using a surcharge -- it's been done before in Illinois -- to invest in something that's very, very important: education of children," the governor said, referring to his proposal to raise the state income tax by 1 percentage point.

"I don't think anybody who is concerned about their downloads should worry about having it be taxed," Quinn said.

On Tuesday, the governor's Office of Management and Budget circulated to top lawmakers a memo with several proposed tax-law changes to help in Quinn's effort to winnow down a $13 billion budget deficit.

That list included the plan to impose the state's sales tax on downloads, which are not taxed by the state now. The proposal could have generated up to $10 million annually.

But the proposal that took aim at virtually anyone who carries an iPod drew condemnation from Republicans and the tech industry.

"He caught heat for it," said Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine), who was among those to first criticize what had been called the "iTunes tax."

"Unfortunately, there's a pretty consistent pattern since he became governor: When he faces pushback on an idea, he tends to walk away from things pretty quickly, with the one stubborn exception of the income tax," Murphy said.

Besides killing off the download tax, Quinn today turned up the heat on state lawmakers who have not coalesced around his proposed 33-percent hike in the state income tax for schools.

The governor did not rule out calling a special session to deal with the tax hike if lawmakers leave May 7and belittled the Legislature for contemplating an early adjournment without an adequate school-funding plan.

"Part of my job is to make sure the General Assembly doesn't just skip town when it has a very important matter before it, and that's to make sure we take good care of our schools in Illinois," the governor said.

"My philosophy is you don't take a holiday on children. You don't skip town when their future is at stake," Quinn said.

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Illinois considers taxing music, video downloads - Quad-Cities Times

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 08:30 PM PDT

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Pat Quinn wants to begin charging the state sales tax on music and video downloads.

The state collects sales taxes on CDs sold in stores. But as people buy more of their music online from such retailers as Apple's iTunes, the state hasn't collected on those sales.

"The point is to keep taxing what we used to tax," Quinn budget director David Vaught said.

State projections show the struggling state could pocket as much as $10 million more if lawmakers go along with the idea.

Retailers could push back. A message left with Apple wasn't immediately returned.

A spokesman for NetChoice, an advocacy group whose clients include Yahoo! and eBay, said digital songs and movies shouldn't be considered equivalent to a physical CD or DVD.

"The sales tax shouldn't necessarily apply in the same way or even at all," NetChoice spokesman Braden Cox said.

Vaught argues that they're selling goods to Illinois residents and should have to pay tax on those sales.

"They shouldn't get a pass," Vaught said.

The base sales tax charged by the state is

6.25 percent, meaning a 99-cent iTunes download would cost a little more than a nickel extra.

Several other states have approved what often is called an "iTunes tax," including Wisconsin, Indiana and Kentucky.

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'Drunk Girls': Spike Jonze is back creating music-video mayhem - Los Angeles Times (blog)

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 02:43 AM PDT

Spike Jonze is the absolute master of creating sheer pandemonium in his music videos. And he hasn't lost his touch, judging from this new clip, "Drunk Girls" by the James Murphy-led LCD Soundsystem, in which a battalion of creepy fire-extinguisher, duct-tape, champagne-bottle wielding pranksters dressed in white panda suits wreak havoc, turning an LCD recording session into something resembling a World Series locker-room celebration gone a bit awry.

The clip feels both wonderfully anarchic and vaguely unsettling, which might just be the mood that Jonze was going for. But see for yourself:

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