The fee, requested by the National Christmas Tree Association in 2009 it was ASKED FOR???
Posted on 11/09/2011 11:16:12 AM PST by Scythian
We want businesses to grow and here you have an industry trying to do that and they get slapped in the face because a few people just read an "Obama's Taxing Christmas" headline and went off half-cocked and didn't bother to find out the details.
I'm not in the business but I grew up in an area with several farms. They are solid Christian conservatives and they are heartsick that three years of effort is now down the drain because someone slapped Obama's name and "tax" on something that don't have a thing to do with either.
The fee, requested by the National Christmas Tree Association in 2009 it was ASKED FOR???
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.
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.
A “Government Mandated Tax” IS a tax. And people don’t like taxes, as the thread reactions show. Personally I think it was a real stupid move. Why oh why use the government to force this on others. Why not just do it on your own. Unless of course some people disagreed and would not pony up the tax, er, contribution mandated by law.
Somebody tried to get cute with government power and it bit them. And my guess is that it is not done biting them. Wait and see. It costs government a buck to do a dimes work and 50 cents to document it.
Bad
Idea.
"This rule establishes an industry-funded promotion, research, and information program for fresh cut Christmas trees. The Christmas Tree Promotion, Research, and Information Order (Order) is authorized under the Commodity Promotion, Research, and Information Act of 1996 (1996 Act). The Order will establish a national Christmas Tree Promotion Board (Board) comprised of 11 producers and one importer. Under the Order, producers and importers of fresh cut Christmas trees will pay an initial assessment of fifteen cents per Christmas tree. Producers and importers that produce or import less than 500 Christmas trees annually will be exempt from the assessment. A referendum will be conducted, among producers and importers, three years after the collection of assessments begin to determine if Christmas tree producers and importers favor the continuation of this program."
I highlighted the key phrases in the statement. Please keep in mind that this program was requested by members of the Christmas tree industry - they want it; they want to pay for it; they will oversee it; and if they don't like the results, they can end it after three years. These are the terms the industry requested, not that the government demanded.
In this particular case, Obama didn't just wake up and order the Ag Dept to rush out and slap arbitrary tax on Christmas. The Christmas tree industry spent over three years trying to get this program approved. Now whether we think it's a waste of money or not is beside the point. It's currently legal, the industry has every right to spend their money as they see fit, and they apparently see fit to spend it through this program.
maybe youre on the wrong forum, as most around here dont seek the monsters help in cuttin their own throats...
Yes.
They want the money too promote real trees over artificial ones.
The tried to do this on a voluntary basis, but could not get enough growers to chip in, so only the big growers paid.
Hence, they asked for this tax, to force little growers to pay into the kitty.
Of course, the little growers have no clout with the government, so this just ends up being a subsidy tax on little growers to support the goals of the big growers.
As for forcing the little guys to chip in, they are exempt. Only the larger growers/importers pay and the larger they are, the more they pay.
Again, I'm not at all comfortable with the idea of the government helping one industry promote itself over another, but this program has been around for years. It isn't some new power grab by the government. The industry asked for this.
Want it eliminated? Fine, let's work on it. But let's not dress it up as something it isn't just to stir the pot. Call it what it is - a private industry paying for government muscle - and offer up sound, reasonable arguments as to why it's a problem. The "oooo, Obama's taxing Christians" line is just inflammatory rhetoric when we should be the voices of reason and logic.
i dont recall saying that, but your previous post did infer that you think its just peachy for a handful of people to use gubmint guns to subsidize their industry...
personally, if i were gonna piss away my profits ahead of sales, even at .15/tree, i think id invest in local ads, rather than 'persuade' others in my industry to market my product...and we all know that the small *fee* is much more in reality once all the crap gets rolled into it, and will only grow larger, like all cancer does...
Then let 'em do it voluntary, within their own group. If they can't play nicely amongst themselves, it's no business of the government to become involved whatsoever.
There was nothing in the government "decree" that said that the cost of the "fee" couldn't be passed along to the individual consumer. It's 15 cents now ... what's to keep it from becoming $20 later?
No argument here. But again, they chose to pursue this and it's their money and their loss if it comes back to bite them in the ass.
Agreed. That expense will be factored into the final price whether that money goes into a government program or a private advertising agency.
And again, the industry actively lobbied for this; the government didn't twist their arm and demand they apply for this program. This isn't the government butting in where they aren't wanted; this is them being invited in, offered a seat, and given a cup of tea.
And, again, who cares? If the industry wants it, let 'em do it themselves and not get the government involved. Since they can't work it out in their own organization, they decided to get the "big guns" of the government to "make them do it" and inflict it on the customer.
"Oh, please, Massa Government, don't throw me in that ol' briar patch ..."
Unless government is forcing you to do this this way, it makes no sense to hand money and your advertizing over to government employees, much better to hire an advertizing company. Cheaper, and it is what they do best. Government employees find all kinds of ways it can't be done, that is what they do best, not advertizing!
In any case, involving the government was a mistake, one that is now obvious. Is there no way you can just go ahead and do this amongst yourselves like things used to be done?
It doesn't make sense to us but it apparently made sense to the Christmas tree industry. If they want to hand over their hard-earned cash to the government instead of an ad agency, that's their right. Being outraged at the government for taking it though just seems misplaced blame.
No, I am mad at the Government for it taking money at every turn and trying to regulate everything. That is not the purpose of Government, it is to defend the land, a job they are not doing, run post offices, a job they are doing incredibly poorly and to regulate commerce to keep it flowing between the States. In that they have taken the opposite stance and are using the commerce clause to overthrow states rights.
The Federal goverment needs to follow the limits described by the Constitution and stop subverting the Country.
This is not misplaced blame, the Goobermint needs to keep its very sticky fingers out of the Christmas Industry, along with ALL other industrys.
For years, the Enviros were hammering us to use atrificial trees-—to cut down on the landfill impact of discarded trees.
Now they want to tax Christmas trees-—
Make Up Your Minds!!!!
That was before their buddies opened "green-friendly" businesses dedicated to recycling those trees! /s
Seriously though, the enviros aren't the ones pushing this; the industry is/was. Heck, I wouldn't really be surprised to hear that the treehuggers are pleased as punch to see this proposal squashed.
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