Quinn Considering Tax On iPod, Music, Movie Downloads

Chicago - Governor Quinn wants to tax Illinois citizens every time they download a song or movie to their computer or iPods. His proposal is to add sales tax to downloads, similar to what more than a dozen other states already do.

Currently, the state sales tax is 6.25 percent, which means you would pay an extra 62 cents on every album you buy for $9.99, and 74 cents on each movie you buy for $14.99. Those individual songs you buy for $1.29 on iTunes would end up costing you $1.35.

The Governor's proposal would raise about $7 million a year. The plan is for the tax to be in place for only a year, but David Vaught, the Director of Budget and Management for the Governor's office said it would likely not go away after a year if lawmakers approve it.

The money would help offset the state’s $13 billion budget shortfall.

"We used to buy our music on CDs, or before that on tape, we paid the sales tax. But when we went into a bricks and mortar store and we paid our sales tax like everybody else," Vaught said. "We think it's time that our taxing policy catches up with technology."

That doesn't sit well with Tate Nudo of Chicago. He has about 1,900 songs that he's purchased from the iTunes store. A tax on all those songs would have cost him about $125 more.

"Anything that's going to increase my cost, I'm obviously against, but you know the idea of walking into a record store isn't that much fun either. So I wonder how much of an option I have when the government does stuff like that," Nudo said.

Jim Tobin, of National Taxpayers United of Illinois, is incensed at the idea of another tax.

"All they can think of is more ways to tax us -- this tax here, that tax there -- and they're doing it to line their own pockets. That's really the worst part of it. They're not doing it to help the needy, they're doing it to line their own pockets," Tobin said.

The new tax may be distasteful to many, but in today's media age, where downloads rule, it may not really impact buying habits.