[American in Israel]

How about next time they don’t use the guns of Goverment to create a tax, but just fund the effort themselves.

Besides, if you give the government a dime, in a few years you will be paying dollars in non compliance to the new 1000 page christmas tree tax reform bill.

[Reese Hamm]

It isn't a tax. The growers had to have some way to calculate how much each one would contribute to the fund and THEY, not the government, said okay, any of us who grow or import more than 500 trees agrees to pay 15 cents per toward this program. It is paid up front, before a single tree is sold. (Sure, it is rolled into the final price just as any other promotional program would be.) But the fee is collected not only their full consent but at their request.

It's the same program used by the dairy farmers for the "Got Milk?" (1995?) campaign and by the beef council for the "Beef, it's what's for dinner" (1992?) campaign. I don't know about you but I haven't seen a skyrocketing national sales tax on milk or beef come roaring along in the last decade.