New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday, Jan. 14, that city and state governments are losing too much sales tax revenues because of sales made over the Internet. He urged that a web of state and federal laws be changed to permit taxation of Internet sales.

"The more purchased over the internet the fewer the sales taxes are that the city charges to pay for its schools, police and fire and everything else," Bloomberg said during an interview on WABC Radio's John Gambling Show.

The mayor acknowledged that many people who purchase goods via the internet believe the taxes where they live are too high. "Internet is another way of buying something in a 
low tax state and bringing it into a high tax state," he said. "People who don't like taxes say that is their right; I would argue change the tax law in the state you live in, and that is what the democratic process is all about."

During the interview, the mayor touted an agreement that his administration reached with Carnival Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Lines to make New York City those lines' exclusive embarkation point for cruises to the Northeast through the year 2017. In return the city will build terminals for the lines, using money they will pay in dockage fees to finance them.

"The reason that we love this industry is that when people come here and go off on a cruise they typically spend a day or two here, at the beginning or the end, so it really is good business," Bloomberg said.

Interviewed the same day that Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) said the New York Jets' football stadium should be built in Queens and not on Manhattan's West Side (see previous story), Bloomberg said—without referring directly to Weiner's comment—"no one is going to go to a stadium that is way away from every place else."  Weiner is expected to announce his candidacy soon to oppose Bloomberg for reelection as mayor.
—Donald H. Harrison