Posted on 01/31/2018 1:30:37 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
While the rest of us were popping champagne to celebrate the arrival of 2018, Seattle greeted the New Year with a 1.75 cent per ounce tax on sweetened beverages. It was needed, former Mayor Ed Murray once said, for a host of noble reasons: to reduce sugar consumption; to raise revenue for important projects like a year of “free” community college for all graduating public high school students; and, to subsidize purchases of healthy foods by low-income families.
Before he resigned in disgrace over multiple allegations of personal misconduct, Murray considered the soda tax one of his greatest accomplishments, a “cutting edge piece of legislation,” with Seattle setting an example for the whole nation.
Seattle policymakers should have paid more attention to what happened in Cook County, Ill., which repealed its soda tax last year within two months after a tremendous public outcry. Let’s be clear. Soda taxes don’t make people healthier. They don’t raise revenue—they drive it outside city limits. They don’t help ease inequality—they make the poor poorer. Soda taxes don’t unite the city around some vague sense that everyone will be healthier—they unite diverse coalitions in opposition to them: Bernie Sanders and libertarians, labor unions, and businesses all come together to express strong opposition to these regressive, job-killing taxes.
Seattle’s soda tax is particularly burdensome. A case of Gatorade that cost $15.99 on December 31, 2017 now costs $26.33, an increase of more than 64 percent.
Fortunately, business managers and customers are not stupid; retailers like Costco have posted signs directing customers to locations outside city limits where shoppers can buy the product without paying the massive tax. Already, there is evidence that people are voting with their feet and buying drinks in the suburbs, depriving Seattle of the revenue it claims to need. The same thing happened to Philadelphia when it implemented a soda tax.
Seattle’s tax does not apply to sugary drinks that list milk as their primary ingredient, such as many flavored coffee beverages. To their credit, Starbucks rejected their hometown tax.
The west coast is often ground zero for politicians who pride themselves on social engineering. In fact, a study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University released on January 3, 2018 revealed that three of the top five states with the most paternalistic laws are California, Oregon, and Washington. Nanny staters have looked to Seattle to fulfill their dream of running our lives. The people of the city need to speak up and end this nightmare.
“democrats are not stupid”
Thats one of the problems conservatives have understanding liberals. They often confuse stupidity when in reality its simple malice
Your’re so stupid government must take care of you.
Somebody must have said it...
"The stupid is strong, in this city..."
We won't see the Seattle Seahawks pouring Gatorade over coach Pete Carroll after a big win. Maybe they will be stirring up their own concoction. Otherwise, it will hike the cost of running a team.
They should tax coffee in Seattle...it’s the fair thing to do.
= = = = = = = = = = =
No....that would not be in the ‘spirit of things’
Just tax those that put sugar or other sweeteners in their coffee.
I don’t worry about ANY OF THIS because I remember the screaming from the rooftops...
THIS NEW DRACONIAN TAX ON TOBACCO PRODUCTS WILL PAY FOR HEALTHCARE.
It was such a great line that Rush was ‘telling us’ to seek out and thank a smoker for paying for our health care.
I still thank a smoker and usually get a WTF look...<: <:
The idiot MENSA graduates that come up with these brain dead ideas, must always be named, and perhaps they will leave town for another state.
Just don't pick California! We are the original "exporters" of the mental midget "low IQ" wannabe totalitarians.
His list of 3 reasons are 1-stupid, 2- fascist and 3- stupider
Not to worry...they’ll just make recreational marijuana legal and tax the hell out of it. Between the plant tax and the booze tax...the state will prosper and over pay their useless employees even more...just like here in NYS.
As I recall in Philly the distributors went under and stopped selling it.
Democrats don’t acknowledge dynamic scoring until it serves their purposes such as children shouldn’t smoke so we will raise the price of cigarettes to discourage them from smoking. They NEVER EVER allow that the same rule applies to other consumer behavior. Best example of this is the heavy truck tax increase in New Jersey about 20 years ago. Democrats doubled taxes on heavy trucks to double the tax yield. Ha ha ha ha the year before 1050 heavy trucks were sold in New Jersey. The year of the doubled taxes New Jersey sold 80 heavy trucks. People went to Pennsylvania and Delaware for heavy trucks. The following year they repealed it.
“I am hoping my fellow Washington citizens wake up and.....”
LOL good one
I’m in Oregon by the way and often tell the same joke.
Liberals—the stupidest people on earth, rendered dangerous by the fact that they have no idea how stupid the are.
It’s called the Dunning-Kruger effect.
And that's the name of the "mental illness" that afflicts liberals, first identified by Michael Savage when he started saying "liberalism is a form of mental illness."
That's basically the only useful thing I ever got from listening to Michael Savage, by the way. On balance, I don't think he's helpful to conservatism, and I don't listen to him. I don't need the stress.
Unlike other states which implemented the tax and then repealed it, look for the ‘wise ones’ in Seattle to double down and 1) increase it or 2) call for a state-wide soda tax.
“Of course the very poor rely on public transportation and would find it difficult to transport soda long distances, “
Silly me,if I was short on money the last thing I would buy is soda.
(I don’t even buy it now because I don’t like it.)
.
.
Our state legislators are debating a state-wide soda tax.
This will hurt the businesses more as groceries aren’t taxed. Less shoppers, less business. It’s simple math.
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