Posted on 12/15/2008 9:52:33 AM PST by presidio9
A can of Coke could soon cost New Yorkers more than just calories.
Gov. Paterson, as part of a $121 billion budget to be unveiled Tuesday, will propose an "obesity tax" of about 15% on nondiet drinks.
This means a Diet Coke might sell for a $1 - even as the same size bottle of its calorie-rich alter ego would go for $1.15.
Paterson's budget also calls for a 3% cut in education spending, a $620-a-year tuition hike at SUNY and a $600 increase at CUNY - and about $3.5 billion in health care cuts, a source said.
The Democratic governor will not call for a broad-based income tax boost, but he will push to restore the sales tax on clothing and footwear.
The drastic belt-tightening comes as lawmakers struggle to close a $15 billion deficit this year and next.
"It's painful to make these decisions," Paterson said Sunday.
State employees again will be asked to forgo their 3% raises next year and defer five days' pay until they leave their jobs, the source said. In all, Paterson will propose about $9 billion in cuts, $4 billion in new taxes and fees, and $1.5 billion in nonrecurring revenue, a second source said.
The so-called obesity tax would generate an estimated $404 million a year. Milk, juice, diet soda and bottled water would be exempt from the tax.
"I'll just buy less," said Victor Lopez, 55, of Manhattan, as he drank a Coke at a midtown Subway store.
"I don't like to buy Diet Coke," said Amaury Garcia, 16, who works at a flower shop in Penn Station. "I'll just not buy any sodas if it goes up."
Public health advocates welcomed news of the tax, saying it would help the fight against childhood obesity.
"Raising the price of this liquid candy will put children and teens on a path to a healthier diet," said Elie Ward of the American Academy of Pediatrics of New York State.
The Paterson administration also announced steps yesterday to expand the state's social services net, including a 30% increase in welfare payments over three years starting January 2010, increased money for food banks and expanded access to the state's Family Health Plus program.
Paterson also hopes to make it easier for people to enroll in Medicaid by eliminating face-to-face interviews and fingerprinting requirements.
A tax on blind politicians to pay for their coke spoons and hotel trysts.
LOL!!! It was posed to me by someone who was born and raised out in the country and thought it was just so marvelous that I had actually been born and raised in NYC. Could not understand why I would give that up to live in the middle of nowhere.
Has it occured to anyone else but me that up until now diet and regular soft drinks have always cost EXACTLY the same? I'm no chemist, but I'm guessing a synthetic sweetener costs a bit more than corn syrp. After water, those are the primary ingredients in either beverage. This means that coke and pepsi drinkers have been subsidizing diet coke and diet pepsi drinkers ever since the latter were invented.
This bloated tick in my brother’s office brings a little carton of Ben & Jerry’s for lunch everyday and then complains about how he misses the bigger cartons he used to eat before he went on a diet.
How to end childhood obesity:
Get the kids off their fat rear ends, get them away from the computer, the Nintendo and the TV, and get them OUTSIDE, running, playing sports, climbing (short, Federally-approved;) trees, bicycling, rollerskating, ETCETERA! Parents need to say “No Junior, you CAN’T have a Wii for Christmas, but you CAN have a bicycle!
Aspertame makes me feel strange. The Splenda stuff I like however.
Obviously it is the State budget that needs to go on a diet. No can do, so instead they tell taxpayers that they are too fat, and need to tax them for their own good.
Obviously it is the State budget that needs to go on a diet. No can do, so instead they tell taxpayers that they are too fat, and need to tax them for their own good.
Don’t you understand? The serfs themselves are incapable of judging what is good and proper. Therefore, the benevolent lords and masters of New York must help the serfs make the right choices.
And to think there are FReepers who think “Bible thumpers” are the greatest threat to our liberty!
My elected officials in Albany will soon be debating the appropriate taxation levels on Dr. Pepper vs. Diet Coke. It really has come to this.
If they can take a break from arguing the merits of taxation on OJ with or without pulp, I’d really like them to get their collective S@#$ together. Soon.
You are right about that: An excessive tax on computer games wouldn’t bother me one bit, and it would do more for childhood obesity than adding 10 cents to the price of a can of soda. Ten cents is about as valuable to kids today as a penny was to us thirty years ago.
I don’t live in NYC, so this doesn’t apply to me. If the city can tax those who drink regular pop because it leads to obesity, shouldn’t there be an offset for people who drink regular Coke but also exercise regularly? The exercisers would have to keep detailed records and have their gauleiter sign off on the weekly exercise log so they can get a tax break.
Or someone who has a physical job.
SNL was actually funny for a change. The Patterson guy was just too funny
Then NY will sue the seetener companies...Then they will increase taxes to pay for the suit.
Then the drug companies will come up with a new drug. Etc, etc, etc...
THARRRR SHE BLOWS! Man we got to render him down. There is a lot of biofuel in that belly. The liposuction guy could make a fortune.
I worked in NYC for 19 years, and lived on LI. While I think the city has some great benefits, like shops, shows, museums and retaurants, the rules and regulations combined with the insane taxes (which are only going to get much, much worse, given their deficit projections and the massive layoffs in the financial services industry) made it easy for me to leave.
We visit if we want, but are then happy to return to our slower, more friendly lifestyle.
Just another ploy to steal a few more coins from the taxpayers. How bout letting insurance companies charge higher premiums to people that are obese—a much more fair way of dealing with the epidemic of overfed people. Insurance companies already charge higher rates for smokers. Why not obesity or homosexual behavior? Homosexuals are the #1 vector for the spread of infectious diseases as well as AIDS breeding antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Living in NY just plain sucks all around.
I’d really like to know where all the lottery money goes to. Doesn’t look like hard times in the lottery line.
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