Posted on 09/23/2017 6:59:48 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Last month we looked at the state of the Cook County, Illinois soda tax, passed into law in December of last year. They had barely gotten the sin tax (which affects Chicago primarily) into motion before realizing that it probably violates the state constitution. They have a workaround in progress which seems dodgy enough as it is, and for the time being they are collecting it. The county executives insisted that it would work out for the best, improving everyone’s health and raising tons of money.
Long before it went to effect we were warning the county that this experiment has been tried in cities around the nation and it’s almost uniformly failed in spectacular fashion. So it would be a real shocker to see it be a big success in the Windy City, right? Fear not. Local retailers are already screaming because their sales are down by nearly fifty percent and they’re predicting that they’ll need to cut back on workers. (CBS Chicago)
In the latest salvo over Cook County’s controversial sweetened beverage tax, retailers trotted out numbers to back up their demand to repeal the tax.
Joseph Butera, owner of the supermarket chain bearing his family’s name, said ever since the soft drink tax went into effect, beverage sales have dropped.
“At our store in Norridge, for example, our beverage sales are down 47 percent,” he said.
Illinois Food Retailers Association President Brian Jordan said stores like Leamington Foods in the Lawndale neighborhood have seen customers leave to shop elsewhere, because of the tax.
The local retailers report that more than 4 in 10 local stores have seen a drop in beverage sales of at least 30%. And it’s affecting overall sales traffic as well. The common sense explanation as expressed by some of the owners is that nobody is going to go all the way out of the county just for soda and then return to buy the rest of their groceries from them. If you’re making the trip anyway you’ll buy almost all your groceries in a place where the taxes on everything are lower. And with gas prices way down from a couple of years ago, it’s more practical to do so.
This has been tried more times than I can count now. They’ve passed these massive sin taxes on soda and other sweetened beverages in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Berkeley and beyond. And the result is pretty much uniform. People don’t drink appreciably less soda. They just drive a bit further to buy it. And back home, stores begin bleeding revenue and jobs are lost. The predicted windfall for the city or county coffers never comes anywhere near the amounts being promised and consumers are given one more reason to distrust and dislike their local government.
There is a proposal to repeal the tax currently under consideration by the county board. Unfortunately, they would need eleven votes to override the predicted veto by Board President Toni Preckwinkle and there are simply too many Democrats running the show.
Well played, Cook County. You’ve really latched into a winner here. If only someone had warned you…
Democrats creating one food desert at a time.
They’d better double the tax because it’s not bringing in the anticipated revenues.
Liberalism would work as expected, if only the people would cooperate and do things as the liberals hope.
Liberalism has always worked. In the same predictable and horrible way.
Translation: liberalism is a mental disease. People lose all capacity to think straight, and even common sense is not possible.
From an earlier post:
(Look who’s #2 in the worst states for Debt)
I know it would be hard to take #1 away from New Jersey, but then it’s the nation’s toilet because of it’s RAT government.
Unfunded debt per taxpayer
Five best states
State Surplus
Alaska $38.2K
North Dakota $24K
Wyoming $20.5K
Utah $4.6K
Nebraska $2.6K
Five worst states
State Debt
New Jersey $67.2K
Illinois $50.4K
Connecticut $49.5K
Kentucky $39K
Massachusetts$32.9K
Does anyone agree that only dictatorships obsess over the health of its people.
The Hitler Youth of the 1930s comes to mind. Always engaged in “healthy” exercise.
The modern Dems are the same, their need for control has consumed them and they are evil cloaked in “goodness.”
ChIraq is LOST!
Time to withdraw.
Funny thing is, the big soda sugar companies are mega left wing.
One county’s loss is another county’s gain.
.
Unfunded debt per taxpayer Five best states State Surplus Alaska $38.2K North Dakota $24K Wyoming $20.5K Utah $4.6K Nebraska $2.6K"
Might want to recheck your sources. Alaska is over 2.5 billion dollars in deficit and wants to add - an income tax, a new and very high gas tax and so and on.
https://www.adn.com/politics/2017/09/22/new-tax-proposal-from-alaska-gov-walker-would-take-1-5-percent-of-wages-up-to-2200/
Just so you know... And yes, the Gov is a Dem.....
Who has time for soda when they are blowing each others ass off.
Another case of the plutocracy pushing their agenda on the rest of the world - the Chicago area has been saturated with pro-soda-tax ads funded by Michael Bloomberg. So we have Bloomberg deciding what our diet is supposed to be, Soros deciding who our attorneys general should be, Zuckerberg deciding what points of view are acceptable on social media . . . and who knows what’s going on behind the scenes with these more-enlightened-than-thou billionaires.
They should force everyone to buy soda or opt out and pay a fine.
Like with health insurance.
Seems the owl faced libtard mayor of Philly
started a trend....
I live in cook county and that’s exactly what I do. I go and buy pop in the next county over. I am not going to give my money to these greedy government pigs.
Maybe you won’t have to. They are predicting a black market.
The answer is in the article “And with gas prices way down from a couple of years ago, it’s more practical to do so.” They just need to raise the gas tax also.
Then they will purchase gasoline in the neighboring counties also.
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