Posted on 07/31/2017 5:10:57 AM PDT by sleeper-has-awakened
Full Title: A new tax on sugary drinks designed to generate revenue for cash-strapped Cook County will be the third burdensome tax applied to soda prices in Chicago, making a $4 12-pack of soda in the city cost $5.97.
Beginning July 1, residents of Cook County may notice their grocery bills growing as a penny-per-ounce tax on artificially sweetened beverages takes effect.
The new tax will be added on top of Chicago’s highest in the nation sales tax of 10.25 percent and the city’s 3 percent tax on non-alcoholic beverages. With the new sugary beverage tax, soda in Chicago will be some of the most expensive in the nation as a $4 12-pack of soda will cost $5.97, an effective tax rate of nearly 50 percent.
The new tax on sugary beverages will also affect fountain drinks, energy drinks, tea, coffee, diet soda and juices that aren’t 100 percent fruit of vegetable juice.
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association filed a lawsuit against Cook County June 27 in an effort to stop the penny-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages. Retailers filed to halt the tax, claiming that the tax is unconstitutionally vague and not uniform in what it taxes. A statement released from the Illinois Retail Merchants Association claims that the Sweetened Beverage Tax creates illegal and unsubstantial classifications of beverages, such as differentiating a bottled Frappuccino sold in a convenience store, which would be taxable, from a Frappuccino prepared in a coffee shop, which would not be subject to the tax.
(Excerpt) Read more at illinoispolicy.org ...
it does include diet.
It’s NOT the government’s responsibility.
Are you kidding? Where does it end with your logic?
I am a Type 2 diabetic. Here are “sugary” things I need to avoid as carbohydrates are broken down into sugars:
Bread
Rolls
Pizza
Pasta
Pretzels
Fruits of all kinds
Milk
Ice Cream
Beer
The list is long. Do we assign special taxes on everything and triple the cost of groceries?
They will find something else to tax. They are never satisfied. The end goal is complete government control over all money. Long way to go, but they are moving toward it.
You are exactly correct. I'm 57 and we ate all of what you did, and my generation saw the dawn of the highly processed foods, like Twinkies and McDonald's. However, for the most part while we were young we were also fairly fit. When we were kids we ran around the neighborhood all day. When we were young adults, we worked physically demanding jobs.
Now the kids play video games and when they get older, they let the Mexicans do the hard physical work.
It is a good thing only the rich buy this stuff.
I walked to school in first grade and got those icicle pops every day on the way. Old gas station with a floor freezer. 2 for 5c.
Took me 20 minutes to get to school. I guess my parents would get locked-up in this day.
Your fat and corrupt Chicago. Your pensions are bankrupt. Just admit it and start over. Socialist bastards.
Al Capone has a new commodity to smuggle and idiot democrats have already written checks for the next ten years of expected revenues which will never arrive.
Next will be the “high fructose sweetener settlement” just like the tobacco settlement in 1996/7.
the difference between sugary drinks and fruit juice is nutrition not sugar. That is why the juice glass is so small.
If you want a sugar rush eat a spoonful of frozen apple juice. Man, is that good!
There are many ways to see this.
Its a way to generate revenue for big government and in the case of billionaire Michael Bloomberg from Wall Street and his “Bloomberg Business Newtork” its a way to tax little people instead of Wall Street business and or billionaires.
[I just love how coffee is considered a “sugary drink”.]
Have you seen the obscene amounts of sugar people pour into their cups??
[Soft drinks are not a dietary necessity. In fact, they are bad for your health, so that may be a good thing.]
That’s not your decision to make for other people.
[Soft drinks bad for your health? Not any worse than OJ.]
The problem with soft drinks today is not SUGAR. It’s this High Fructose Corn Syrup crap. It’s absolutely terrible for your health!! And the diet drinks are even worse.
Aspertame has been linked to surpressing insulin, and is a bigger risk of creating diabetes than sugar-added beverages.
Like everything in life, things need to be taken into moderation.
i live in a county west of Cook. I’m guessing all these counties will be looking at this.
Next, Cook will tax non-sugar drinks because they have no sugar in them to be taxed.
When people’s healthcare is paid by my premiums and my taxes, it becomes my problem.
That is the reasoning, and it has some merit.
This will fail big time. Look at what happened in PA and also Seattle.
Well, they HAD to use ‘sugary drinks’, as they had to catch the SODA *and* POP drinkers /s
they should tax bullets. problem solved.
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