Get Ready For The Twinkie Tax

forbes.com ^ | 02/16/04 | Mark Tatge

[VermiciousKnid]

Get Ready For the Twinkie Tax Mark Tatge, 02.16.04

Apparently unsatiated by their huge claims on booze and cigarettes, the tax police are planning a major snack attack. Potato chips, cookies, sodas, candy--a $30 billion-a-year business--are being targeted by more than a dozen revenue-starved states under the misguided impression that by charging a few extra cents per can or bag they can trim their budget deficits and encourage the rest of us to slim down. Fat chance. Among the assaults:

NEW YORK plans a new sales tax (one-quarter of 1%) on sweets and snacks, on top of a bill to ban the sale of junk food from vending machines in public schools. The resulting $50 million a year would fund programs to fight childhood obesity.

WASHINGTON State's SB 5928 would lift the sales-tax exemption for candy, aiming to raise $40 million a year.

Legislators in ARKANSAS defeated a bill to add a 1% sales tax on junk food, which would have added up to $14 million a year to fund K-12 education, but it's far from dead.

VERMONT'slawmakers tried to raise $5 million for education by adding a 6% sales tax to snack foods. The bill died, but legislators are talking about reviving the idea of a snack tax.

A plan in NEBRASKA to extend the state's 5.5% sales tax to snack foods and baked goods flamed out last year, but supporters hope to bring it back as a way to raise an extra $5 million.

[VermiciousKnid]

They're coming for the Twinkies. And the Ring Dings. And the Yodels.

Toldya.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Just as long as they leave pork rinds alone.....

[VermiciousKnid]

Ha! Fat chance.

(Please excuse the pun.)

Regards,

[CR]

I don't think it's possible to tax a lifestyle, and besides they're born that way, it's not a choice.

Oh....wait a minute....wrong kind of twinkie.

Never mind.

[contessa machiaveli]

rush said this was going to happen and i thought he was crazy and paranoid. was i wrong!
what is a "snack"....where do you draw the line? this is sick. are organic corn chips a snack? unsweetened cookies for diabetics? ice cream? yogurt?
is the government intent to take all the fun and personal responsibility out of our lives?

[Questioneer]

>>They're coming for the Twinkies. And the Ring Dings. And the Yodels. <<

From Arkansas: Legislatures just passed a 7/8 cent sales tax increase with the explanation that it's less than 1 cent. They tried to tax so-called "junk food" but failed on the first try - and they said they will try again! In addition, they tried to make the sales tax apply to service industries and media advertizing - BUT (there's always that, isn't there!) the newspapers, magazines and broadcast media were fast to complain, complain, complain and threaten something that made the legislatures toss it out. Arkansas needs some HELP - intellectually!

[Great Dane]

Make and bake your own cookies and candy, taste much better anyway.

[Great Dane]

I don't think it's possible to tax a lifestyle, and besides they're born that way, it's not a choice. Oh....wait a minute....wrong kind of twinkie.

Funny, thanks for the giggle.

[VermiciousKnid]

Are you serious when you say you think a TAX may have helped you?

Do you REALLY want the government to determine how you live your life? I know I certainly don't...

Regards,

[Fixit]

I printed up and distributed a bunch of these almost two years ago here in CT. I think it's an effective image, maybe you can have some luck with something like this too.

[Great Dane]

rush said this was going to happen and i thought he was crazy and paranoid. was i wrong! what is a "snack"....where do you draw the line? this is sick. are organic corn chips a snack? unsweetened cookies for diabetics? ice cream? yogurt?

Our government had that problem with the sales tax, they decided that if you bought one, it was a snack, if you bought more than 6 it was a food.

One day we were in line at those delicious muffin stands, one guy yelled, how many are buying muffins, lets buy them all together and call it food..... no tax, it was fun.

[stainlessbanner]

Pepsi stock dropped when you quit drinking Dr. Pep.

[Fizzie]

Sorry to hear about your state of affairs. Sounds VERY painful. But you aren't saying Dr. Pepper caused this, or if there were a Twinkie Tax, you would haved changed your behavior, are you? Or are you?

[stainlessbanner]

(or 7-up or whoever owns Dr. Pep)

[Chewbacca]

What happens when they start taxing the bottles of corn syrup, bags of sugar and flour?

[Great Dane]

#7... They have been taxing utilities and services here in Canada for years... to the tune of 15%.

[Koblenz]

Putting an extra tax on sweets: stupid. Eliminating a tax break for sweets: ok by me.

You need taxes. Like it or not, the government does need money -- for police, fire, courts, defense, etc. There's a lot of things the government doesn't need to do that it does, but it does need to do something. So you need taxes.

To get taxes, the government should tax fairly. If it chooses to go the sales tax route, then tax everything equally. If it goes by income or property tax, ditto. Don't play favorites. Don't use the tax code to influence behaviour. Just raise money fairly. And don't spend it on stupid things. Like anti-obesity programs.

[VermiciousKnid]

Hey, I agree with you -- if the government wants to go the sales tax route, then tax it all -- and ALL at the same rate: booze, smokes, food, clothes -- ALL of it. But all these extra taxes on "bad" stuff is disgraceful.

And let's not forget the infamous "surcharge" tax. We've got a TON of that here in New York. Why, you wouldn't believe what they tax you for in New York, all the while calling it a "surcharge."

But they'll never do it, not in a bazillion years. It's appalling.

Regards,

[Great Dane]

What happens when they start taxing the bottles of corn syrup, bags of sugar and flour?

LOL... I'll have to think about that one, I was going to say, grow your own, but we would all have to quit our jobs....sigh, not enough time to screw the government, whereas they get paid to screw us.