...is it always so that first they mismanage budgets and funds, and then they try to take the money from what they feel ae easy targets? Don't they have enough smokers or drinkers (I mean, it's New Jersey, after all) which should yield far more revenue?

All this will mean is that those using the iTMS in New Jersey will either get PO Boxes outside of NJ, and change heir credit card billing addresses - or (here's an idea) move the heck out of New Jersey...

not to live in New Jersey

they should use the tax money to hire a financial consultant. It cracks meup that they get 4.5 billion in debt, then expect us to a) bail them out and b) trust them with more of OUR money in hopes they wont go into debt again..

After 2 loans to my brother in law and no signs of improvement, I stopped giving him money. I think the same should appy for governments! :)

US population: 300,000,000 NJ population: 8,000,000 Percentage of US population: 2.66% Itunes Sold: approximately 125,000,000 Number sold in NJ (based upon 2% population): 3,325,000 Total x NJ tax of 7%: $252,750 Total NJ debt: $4,500,000,000 Total NJ debt after this brilliant idea: $4,499,747,250

Yeah, that'll do it.

I thought that Apple collected sales tax for all states that charge sales tax and then remitted it to the states due to the fact that it does business in just about every state. Does New Jersey not already have a sales tax on music, or are they just being greedy wanting more?

the motiviation of Gov. Corzine's actions, and acknowlege much of what he's done as a brave attempt to improve NJ's fiscal responsibility... this one is a no go as far as I'm concerned. How about imposing state-level taxes/fees on the developers who are getting rich plundering what little is left of NJ's rural/agricultural areas?

That is absolutely correct. NJ already collects taxes from Apple, so this is probably not targeted towards Apple exactly, but towards other companies and services who may not be paying a tax right now. I guess if this is enacted, then the purchases on iTunes would probably indicate the exact sales tax that is going to be charged rather than an estimate.

join the Oct 5 slave revolt country wide, google search for more info...

Lets' all strike against the system; don't go to work don't go shopping; join all the slaves everywhere in the struggle for survival...

The average NJ citizen already pays over 50% of wages towards some kind of tax...do a google search yourself if you don't believe me...this is criminal!!

NJ'ers are getting taxed to death.

Its' quite expensive to live in NJ and getting worse every day...

This is why retirees MOVE AWAY and excape the enormous TAX BURDEN.

educate yourself, taxing iTunes or any other ILLEGAL TAX SCAM will only make matters worse.

the NJ governr should eliminate the gov't payroll until the state is solvent; since the state is hopelessly bankrupt already...did somebody say perpetual recession???

New Jersey already charges a sales tax on purchases made in New Jersey. Since Apple has a physical presense in New Jersey it has to collect the tax for New Jersey. What New Jersey is talking about, however, is to charge an additional tax which is applied to song downloads. For example, when you pay for a hotel, you not only pay a sales tax in many states, buy also other state applied taxes. So a .99 cent download in New Jersey would cost $1.07 plus whatever this additinal tax is.