Posted on 01/31/2018 1:30:37 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
While the rest of us were popping champagne to celebrate the arrival of 2018, Seattle greeted the New Year with a 1.75 cent per ounce tax on sweetened beverages. It was needed, former Mayor Ed Murray once said, for a host of noble reasons: to reduce sugar consumption; to raise revenue for important projects like a year of “free” community college for all graduating public high school students; and, to subsidize purchases of healthy foods by low-income families.
Before he resigned in disgrace over multiple allegations of personal misconduct, Murray considered the soda tax one of his greatest accomplishments, a “cutting edge piece of legislation,” with Seattle setting an example for the whole nation.
Seattle policymakers should have paid more attention to what happened in Cook County, Ill., which repealed its soda tax last year within two months after a tremendous public outcry. Let’s be clear. Soda taxes don’t make people healthier. They don’t raise revenue—they drive it outside city limits. They don’t help ease inequality—they make the poor poorer. Soda taxes don’t unite the city around some vague sense that everyone will be healthier—they unite diverse coalitions in opposition to them: Bernie Sanders and libertarians, labor unions, and businesses all come together to express strong opposition to these regressive, job-killing taxes.
Seattle’s soda tax is particularly burdensome. A case of Gatorade that cost $15.99 on December 31, 2017 now costs $26.33, an increase of more than 64 percent.
Fortunately, business managers and customers are not stupid; retailers like Costco have posted signs directing customers to locations outside city limits where shoppers can buy the product without paying the massive tax. Already, there is evidence that people are voting with their feet and buying drinks in the suburbs, depriving Seattle of the revenue it claims to need. The same thing happened to Philadelphia when it implemented a soda tax.
Seattle’s tax does not apply to sugary drinks that list milk as their primary ingredient, such as many flavored coffee beverages. To their credit, Starbucks rejected their hometown tax.
The west coast is often ground zero for politicians who pride themselves on social engineering. In fact, a study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University released on January 3, 2018 revealed that three of the top five states with the most paternalistic laws are California, Oregon, and Washington. Nanny staters have looked to Seattle to fulfill their dream of running our lives. The people of the city need to speak up and end this nightmare.
Nanny State PING!
When Gatorade is outlawed, only Outlaws will have Gatorade!
The stupid is so STRONG with Democrats. It boggles the mind!
They should tax coffee in Seattle...it’s the fair thing to do.
My apologies to the FReeper who pointed it out weeks ago whose name I didn’t write down at the time, but the comment was made by one of the city council members that “No one is going to drive out of town for soda,” which is true. They’ll drive out of town for soda and buy the rest of their groceries at the same time. Smart move, Seattle.
“The people of the city need to speak up and end this nightmare.”
They are the scum that ordered it!
Seattle will keep the tax and as it brings in less and less revenue they’ll raise the tax to make up for it. Then tax the tax.
Freakin soda tax fails every place its tried but lunatic leftists keep foisting it on the people regardless of facts. Case in point Seattle.
It’s only a few miles either way (well except west) to leave the city limits.
...and, yet, Costco gives overwhelmingly to leftists and liberals. F' them and buy elsewhere.
“They’ll drive out of town for soda and buy the rest of their groceries at the same time. Smart move, Seattle.”
Even the dumb voters in the stateside shithole of Cook County figured this out so they had to rescind the tax.
Of course the very poor rely on public transportation and would find it difficult to transport soda long distances, but the lefties love to make the poor as miserable as possible. :-(
Ahh, arrogant liberals once again think they can outsmart human nature. It’s why communism doesn’t work but they’ve become so radically insane for their cause, they refuse to listen.
CGato
I still remember all the whoppers told when Philadelphia adopted theirs. All of a sudden revenues for stores in the city limits plummeted.
democrats are not stupid, so it must be self-loathing that compels them to deny human nature and act in a way that is 100% opposed to it.
They need to tax people based on “presumed soda consumption”. That way, they’re sure to extract the money from them.
I wonder how the bootleg business is developing. Are they going to have ports of entry at the city limits? Will there by “Thunder Road”-type races as the soda bootleggers try to outrun the soda police? Where is Al Capone when we really need him?
The poor can’t afford to buy soda instead of milk for the kids. To them a soda would be a luxury. /s
These types of taxes only hurt the people whom they are supposedly designed to help - poor people! These poor people are stuck in the city due to the lack of transportation, so THEY pay these exorbitant taxes, while middle class people drive to a neighboring city and purchase the same items without the taxes!
The city of Irving, Texas was one that prided itself on being a “dry city”, but everyone knew exactly where each beer joint was located just outside the city limits! DUH!
Just wait until Governor Inslee signs the bill for a soda tax on the entire state. I am hoping my fellow Washington citizens wake up and vote the tax-and-spend Democrats out of the governorship and out of both the House and Senate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.