Posted on 01/13/2017 12:39:16 PM PST by oblomov
After driving up the cost of soda and other sugary drinks with a new tax, the mayor of Philadelphia is now trying to blame businesses for charging higher prices (and for the outrage those prices have generated).
Mayor Jim Kenney, who proposed the soda tax and championed its passage through city council last year, told reporters on Tuesday it's not the new 1.5-cents-per-ounce tax that's making it more expensive to buy a can of Coke in Philly. No, according to the mayor, those higher prices are caused by city businesses price gouging their customers in order to stir up opposition to the tax.
"They're gouging their own customers," Kenney said, KYW News reports.
To understand Kenney's reasoning, you have to know that the new tax technically is applied at the wholesale level. That is, the city is charging a tax on the transaction that takes place when a business, like a sandwich shop or grocery store, purchases soda (or the syrup used to make soda in a fountain) from a distributor. In the mayor's mind, it seems, distributors and retailers are supposed to eat the cost of the tax and continue selling their products at the same price as before the tax went into effect.
In the real world, those sandwich shops and grocery stores, of course, are adjusting the retail price of sugary drinks to make up for the added cost imposed by the tax. Some of them have posted signs to inform customers why drink prices have skyrocketed.
Kenney doesn't like that. He called those efforts "wrong" and "misleading" and suggested that it could be an extension of the expensive fight put up by soda companies, retailers, and even the city's Teamsters Union in a failing effort to prevent the tax from passing in the first place.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Who is stupider than liberals?
Sheeple who listen to liberals and believe what they say without question.
What did this moron expect?
Recall the idiot.
Listening to the Philly talk stations, they question if folks living near border areas will go outside of the city to purchase soda.. Thats it, thats the discussion. I’d say yes, they will buy the soda and every other item at stores outside the City, not just the darn soda. Save 1% sales tax to boot, I think it’s an added 1%?
The expected the increase to be spread over the total purchase
100% of Democrats are economic illiterates.
That's how we get Democrat politicians in Democrat strongholds.
Uh-oh. How long until some enterprising Freddie Gray-type dies while selling “loosie” single cans of Pepsi and the city gets burned down?
"While concentrates or syrups are also taxed, their tax rate is based on the final beverage produced, not the raw syrup or concentrate."
If the city wants 0 cents more for a 20 oz soda and the retailer raises his shelf price by 25 cents, that is, of course, unconscionable price gouging.
If the city wants 0 cents more for a 20 oz soda and the retailer raises his shelf price by 25 cents, that is, of course, unconscionable price gouging.
So Mayor Kenney’s economics degree is from the University of Caracas?
In a market economy “price gouging” is a term with no meaning. It is relevant only to monopolies and cartels.
“Sugary drinks”
Bloomberg invented that term like all leftists do when trying to shove their fascism down peoples throats. It’s freakin SODA. We don’t call ice cream “sugary cream”, we don’t call cookies “sugary dough”, we don’t call candy “sugary chocalate”.
All business taxes are paid by the consumer of the businesses goods and services.
Only two reasons why the meathead Democrats in Pittsburgh won’t try this:
1) Philadelphia is the only “first-class city” in Pennsylvania. So no other city’s home rule charter gives it that power.
2) 80% of Pittsburgh residents are less then five minutes drive from an adjoining jurisdiction.
How many times have I told those on FR that businesses pay NO taxes!?!?
Here is a PERFECT example of a ‘business’ tax being paid by the final consumers.
“Dont forget the sales tax applies to the increase.”
And according the article this tax on sugary drinks applies at the wholesale level. So one would reasonably expect to see this cost increase not only passed on, but also marked up to maintain profit margins.
TADA!
Quite “Venezuelan”
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