Posted on 06/01/2002 11:30:55 AM PDT by SheLion
Child-care advocates push for 10-cent tax
A proposed tax could hit Seattleites where it really hurts: their coffee mugs. A group of child-care advocates, seeking more money for early education, filed an initiative Friday that would place a 10-cent city tax on Seattle’s lifeblood - espresso drinks.
BUT IN Seattle, where voters have already voted to tax tobacco, meals and hotel rooms, among other things, initial word of the proposal caused barely a jolt among the area’s latte lovers.
“Coffee, in a way, it’s kind of a luxury item,” said Patty Grazini, who frequents the Diva Espresso Bar in Seattle’s Greenwood district. “As long as the money went to the programs it was supposed to, I would support it.”
The Early Learning and Care Committee, which is made up of parents, teachers and child-care directors, expects the tax would raise $7 million to $10 million a year in this coffee-addicted city.
The money would be used to increase wages for child-care teachers, help low- and middle-income families obtain quality child care and increase the amount of high-quality care available in Seattle, said Lisa Moy, campaign manager of the initiative.
The committee has until early August to collect the 17,228 valid signatures needed to get the initiative on November’s ballot.
Melissa Petersen, barista at Diva Espresso, wasn’t so sure the initiative was a good idea. Another 10 cents is a lot to ask for a drink that already can cost $3 to $4, she said.
“They’ve got a smoking tax, regular taxes, why not a yuppie tax?” Petersen said sarcastically.
GUARANTEED INCOME SOURCE
Grazini, 50, averages about two cappuccinos a day and has no problem flipping the bistro an extra couple of dimes. The tax would bring the cost of her daily caffeine dosage to about $4.20, or an additional $73 a year.
Under the plan, drip coffee would not be taxed. Moy said taxing espresso drinks is a guaranteed source of income in Seattle, where many residents can’t get through the day without a caffeine hit.
“We know that the city of Seattle voters are dedicated to their children,” Moy said. “This is one way they can enable children more access to quality pre-kindergarten care.”
Since the tax would apply to businesses that gross more than $50,000 annually, Moy said Starbucks and Tully’s Coffee — Seattle’s main coffee purveyors — have been informed of the group’s plan.
In a prepared statement, Starbucks said the company did not understand why the group “would recommend an additional consumer tax on espresso beverages, or any other single consumer product, to fund this initiative.”
Company spokeswoman Audrey Lincoff would not comment further.
The tax would do little to affect business at Diva Espresso’s four locations in Seattle, manager Stephen Johnson said.
“Regular customers would initially notice, but they would adapt to it very readily,” Johnson said. “I think coffee’s a pretty strong drug. People need their caffeine.”
Now COFFEE is a DRUG!!!!
They are trying to find every way in the world to tax the air we breath.
I run a small business, and anyone out there who does will know what a task and cost it is to collect these taxes, keep all of your "papers" in order and deal with the government. If everything is not squared away you incur penalties.
Florida is real cute. I was a few days late this quarter so the other day I get a PHONE CALL from the tax collector. Gee what neat new tactic, just like the the good old days when the Monarch sent the tax collector out, except now we have phones.
At first I thought it was one of my associates playing a joke, because they're in the process of dragging his dick around in the dirt for the same thing. Nope, it was a real-life schmuck tax collector calling my house.
Question: Why in the hell should I have to be their damn tax collector? I have to do their dirty work and not get compensated? I thank the lord that my wife is a CPA or I honestly don't know what I would do. I don't know how guys that don't have an accountant in the family ever get started for cryin' out loud.
With small business owners, there's just not enough of us to get together to change anything so we just have to sit back and take it. I can't even believe I'm still surviving after all of the s**t I've had to go through just dealing with the government.
Don't wanna sound like I'm whining, but the government has honestly been my biggest obstcacle to my business thriving and bringing my customers a good value.
Moy forgot to add "yet" to the end of her sentence. Citizens, or I should say, Comrades aren't allowed to have disposable income in THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF SEATTLE.
What business does the city have paying for wages at privately run day care centers with taxpayer's money?
If this passes - and it probably will - I hope there is still someone left in Seattle, not towing the party line ( I know there are a few FReepers that qualify), that will challenge it in Federal Court.
Enter Special guest star Rob Reiner, as the head of iamyourchild.org, who lectures Frasier and Niles about how selfish they are for complaining, until they break down and apologize.
I wish I was suprised.
The hell it is. In that overcast, dreary, cold,
wet climate, coffee is the only legal way of
surviving. I am so happy to have gotten out
of that miserable climate. Hail sunshine!
See how "they" get their foot in the door? They KNOW coffee is the America's favorite, so they figure "Wow, I bet we can get a LOT of tax money off of IT!"
These coalitions will get their money one way or the other!
I don't want to sound like "I'm" whining either, but can you imagine how the cigarette taxes have hurt people? And the Boards of Health going into a business and FORCING THEM TO GO SMOKE FREE?
When a person puts his blood, sweat, tears and money into his own business, that's what it should remain: his own.
I bet that fat SOB doesn't even PAY taxes. He's a fat dirtbag. Excuse me, but I can't STAND that glob!
Lucas, people refuse to believe it can happen to them. Then when it does, then they scream. But only after it's too late.
Not in my house it isn't! Luxury item? More like a downright necessity.
Anyone who knows me would tell you that I'm downright nasty without my first few cups of coffee in the morning.
I guarantee if this Patty Grazini broad ever met me sans coffee, she'd change her tune in a big hurry! She'd be standing on street corners giving away coffee.
Stupid liberals. Is there anything they haven't taxed yet?
Regardless of the intention, the State of Indiana has come up with another way to penalize smokers. They have passed a law making it illeagal to dispose of a lit cigarette butt out of a car window. New law starts being inforced July 1.
This is only the beginning. I wonder where this will lead.
There you go. heh! :)
We don't have a STARBUCKS up here. So, I won't have to worry about it.
I feel so much better now, thank you.
Of course it is, but that doesn't make it a bad thing.
There are other states to choose from. :-)
It has been said that people get the kind of government they deserve. The majority of Seattle's residents must be under the impression that if you can afford to stay in a hotel, eat out at a resturant, smoke tobacco, or drink flavored coffee, then you're liable to support the daycare and early-learning of the region's single and poor parents.
By the time it gets this far, it's too late. Attitudes have to be changed, and in the largest population center of Gary Locke's fiefdom, that isn't very likely. It's redistribution of wealth, by any other name. Isn't socialism wonderful?
Should read "then you're liable to support the daycare and early-learning for the children of the region's single and poor parents.
ahhh, but florida DOES compensate you for collecting sales taxes - the grand whopping sum of 2.5% of the amount of the net tax due
but, they wouldn't want those greedy businesses getting rich collecting the gubmint's pound of flesh, so it's limited to 30 bucks per return, which could be 1, 2, 4 or 12 per year, just think, as much as $360 per year for frequent filers!
of course, if you're even one day late filing a return, ooops, sorry, no collection allowance for you, an extra-specially nice back-door penalty on top of the minimum 10% late-filing penalty
i'm not a cpa, and i don't play one on tv, but i do keep the books for someone who has sold about 300k of stuff on ebay and yahoo
very little is delivered (and thus taxable) in florida, but, once a day i spend about 60 seconds plugging her revenue and expenses into my spreadsheet, and, the day after each quarter ends, the florida sales tax return entries can be transferred to paper and dumped in the mail
but, alas, because the tax she pays on her purchases for resale from outfits which won't do non-taxable sales (by law, they don't have to if they don't want to, whether due to laziness, cashier stupidity, or whatever) reduce the net tax due, she winds up with little or no collection allowance
every time i calculate 2.5% of nothing, i think again of how considerate florida was, in their infinite wisdom, to base their gigantic tax collection allowance on net tax due, instead of tax collected
i gleefully rub my hands as i assume about 24 hours of effort (one minute per day) over the last 4 years to obtain collection allowances totalling $8.83, and calculate that the compensation was the princely sum of about 37 cents per hour
no, wait, that doesn't count the endless pleasurable hours explaining to morons that the "internet tax moratorium" doesn't mean that they don't have to pay the tax, or make any allowance for all of the considerate people who "forget" to pay it, leaving her to eat the minor amount because it's not worth the trouble
why, taking all of those extra benefits into account, nobody can say florida doesn't pay us a veritable king's ransom to do their dirty work for them
surely the exalted and grossly over-compensated position of "private tax collector for the welfare state" must be in heavy demand, and we should just shut up and stop whining lest they take our sinecures away
I was never actually called by a tax collector, I was a little taken aback. It's funny, most book keepers and accountants really hate the tax system we have even though it's their livelihood. Keep on preaching.
We don't want to ban it,...yet.
But it's for the 'chirun' so go ahead and vote to tax your bathroom usage too.
In a prepared statement, Starbucks said the company did not understand why the group "would recommend an additional consumer tax on espresso beverages, or any other single consumer product, to fund this initiative."
I'll bet they didin't say a word when the state upped the cigarette tax. Now their ox is getting gored.
Yes, they are. Businesses like espresso bars serve their customers by giving them espresso in exchange for money. I have no idea what that has to do with The Early Learning and Care Committee.
...and people get protected by government
Government should protect the people in this case by refusing to impose a tax to redistribute taxpayer dollars to a small minority of advocates.
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