Troubled times obviously require some sort of drastic, new thinking. But taxation usually won’t get you too many supporters as New York Gov. David Patterson is soon to find out for himself.

For the last decade, everyone on earth has been attempting to work out some new model to profit from the internet. There’s no reason not to think that way, but what Gov. Patterson is proposing might not work to his political benefit.

The 88 new tax proposals by Patterson, which includes a digital music tax, also taxes movie tickets, taxi rides, carbonated beverages, cigars, massages, wine and beer. And while that actually sounds like a fun evening out, the New York government is attempting to cut a $15.4 billion budget shortfall.

Each item is slated to be accompanied by a separate tax and the digital music tax is purportedly going to come in at 4 percent. So on an album of music, the tax might be as little as 40 cents – that depends on the length of the disc that you’re purchasing and how many tracks there are, of course

This measure doesn’t really seem too extreme, but to New Yorkers, it may seem like another slap in the face during an economic downturn. But if it serves to eliminate a state wide budget issue, why not just accept it? Of course all of this is predicated on the assumption that the new tax won’t drive more internet users to illegally acquire music thus nullifying the efforts of this tax. We’ll have to wait and see if the tax becomes law or not before we make grand speculations like that though.