I guess I'll be getting rid of all my friends on facebook. I wonder which state will be next 
~~~~~~~~~~
Hidden among the thousands of pages of new taxes and fees in the new state budget, is the first ever "Social Networking Tax" in the country. Gov. David Paterson and the NYS Assembly will be levying a tax on MySpace and Facebook subscibers, according to the number of "friends" or social contacts each resident has. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, along with State Police authorities will be working hand in hand with New York State Internet Service Providers to determine the amount of friends per person in each household, regardless of age. The average New York state resident is expected to pay about $93.00 per family member per year, with the new fees going into effect with the passage of this year's budget. I'm am SO BESIDE myself over this. I've just gotten into the whole MySpace, Facebook thing and now I'm going to have to pay per friend??? I'm going to be the lonliest man on the internet! Part of the reason the budget was held up was because of some proposed clauses to the social networking friend tax:
Clause 1 (Green waiver): If you can document that your primary computer used for social networking is powered solely by renewable resources, you are exempt from the tax. This is part of the state's "go green" Initiative.
Clause 2 (Excessive friend tax): Anyone making more than 1,000 social networking friends per year will be taxed at the excessive friend tax rate of 90%. This tax only applies to friends made in the tax year and does not apply to existing friends or the first 999 friends made in the current tax year.
Clause 3 (Alternative Friend Tax): Any household applying for the green waiver that otherwise would have been subject to the excessive friend tax may only be granted the waiver if, and only if, there are two or fewer computers in the household and they would not have been subject to the excessive friend tax had it been law last year. This ensures that people who make a lot of friends pay at least some tax.
Clause 4 (bailout clause) Anyone who was ever a manager at a company receiving money from any of the recent government assistance programs is not allowed to have any friends.
http://wcbstv.com/local/ny.state.budget.2.971103.html
