Posted on 12/17/2008 5:40:01 PM PST by Eric Blair 2084
Governor Paterson says he can raise $404 million in state revenues with a 15% tax on soft drinks (but not diet sodas, juices, milk, or water).
The relevant section of the statute reads:
"Create Sales Tax on Soft Drinks. Imposes an additional 18 percent rate of sales and compensating use taxes on fruit drinks that contain less than seventy percent of natural fruit juice and non-dietetic soft drinks, sodas and beverages. By increasing the price, it will discourage individuals, especially children and teenagers, from excessive consumption of these beverages. Revenues will be directed for health care initiatives."
And heres the American Beverage Associations predictable response: hurts the middle class, nobody wants it, no science or logic behind it.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. For example, the maker of a carbonated juice drink wrote me to complain that her product, which is 50% juice and taxable, contains under 70 calories per 8-ounces in comparison to non-taxed 100% fruit juice at 110 calories/8 ounces. Obesity is about calories, no? Or is it really about the kinds of products people habitually drink?
Im curious to know what you think of this idea. Please weigh in.
They got the smokers, why not the overweight? Next, we'll move on to the ugly.
I would like to see a chart comparing New York’s Governor to Alaska’s.
Yet more of the left’s attempts to tax to death the poor who are the largest consumers of junk food.
let's force businesses to charge 25 cents to open sliding entry doors.
let's charge everyone a sidewalk tax, an air tax, a tax on broccoli, etc.
this is, of course, what the framers had in mind... right?
But we where told that they will stop at smoking..
Nobody cared when they taxed cigarettes, now I don’t care when they tax soda, hamburgers or Kentucky Fried Chicken......
In other news, Big Brother has determined that the chocolate ration must be decreased in March.
I consume diet soda with the once-in-a-while Starbucks. But I really don’t care. I don’t live in NY anymore.
funny thing is, the libs are against the fair tax, but when they tax basic goods they reduce the overall percentage of taxes paid by the rich. oops.
Turns out carbohydrates are more difficult for the digestive system of diabetics to handle.
Frankly, I'd go for a flat out ban on carbohydrates in the schools. Make the kids eat more meat and cheese ~ cut out the useless breads and cakes.
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We the People Sheeple of the United States Nanny State, in Order to form a more perfect Union Socialist Utopia, establish Justice Socially engineer a country of non smoking, physically fit, teetotalers, insure domestic Tranquility Smoking bans in bars, limits on unhealthy food and social drinking, provide for the common defense Universal Healthcare, promote the general Welfare health of the population whether they like it or not, in order to save above mentioned Universal Healthcare entitlement program from bankruptcy, and secure the Blessings of Liberty Dependency to ourselves progressive liberals and our Posterity Hitler Youth who we brainwash through public school education, do ordain decree and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Nanny State of Liberals.
What these morons fail to realize is the soft drink companies will raise the price of diet drinks so all soft drinks are equal price at retail
Diet drinks cost considerly more to produce and when people start drinking more diets the soft drink companies will make less money so they will raise the price to make up the difference
I’m not proud of myself either. It’s called Schadenfreude.
You can bet on it.
“Im curious to know what you think of this idea. Please weigh in.”
I’m thinking that NY just lost all the dollars we used to spend there on our semi-annual pass-through. :)
That's good. There is a lot of high fructose corn syrup even in the diet soda. We'll get them next. The price will go up which will make the evil soda companies less money.
Sincerely,
Marion Nestle
I was going to post the NY Post Article. The best thing were the comments. The jist of it was leave your socialist disease up there and don't move down to _______ (TN, SC, GA, TX, WY, MT) and infect us. Check out the comments. I'll copy and paste a few here because they were better than the article.
GOV'S TAX & SPEND SHOCKER ADDS 137 HIKES WHILE INCREASING BUDGET TO $121B
At least heavy consumption of diet soda is, iirc.
“But we where told that they will stop at smoking..”
I’m a former smoker. About twenty years ago I worked with an overweight guy who liked to criticize smokers and he was all for tobacco taxes, smoke free areas, etc. I’d occasionally tell him that some day they’d get around to the overweight, and that I thought that there should be a surcharge for the overweight added to all airline tickets since the limitation on plane cargo is weight as much or more than volume.
He thought I was just making something up for the heck of it. But I really believed the day would come because we have a big element of self-righteous, know-it-all little Stalins in our society and they’ll eventually get around to most anything one could imagine if they’re allowed to keep it up.
Having said that, I don’t object to a tax on items that do have a social and real cost to taxpayers; such as alcohol, tobacco, and sugar. Sugar will some day be proven to be far more harmful than either alcohol or tobacco. These taxes (if reasonable) don’t prevent anyone from their indulgences, and there is a real cost to their use.
It won’t pay to be a fat, ugly smoker in NY if this passes.
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