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| Chicago Soda Tax A Bigger Hot Mess Than Predicted |
| 2017-08-13 |
| Back in December of last year, over vocal protests from residents, Cook County, Illinois (which is primarily composed of Chicago) adopted a policy similar to many other cash strapped, liberal municipalities. They decided to save the people from themselves and simultaneously put a bunch of money in the city’s nearly empty coffers by imposing a sin tax on soda and other “sweetened beverages.” Their argument was that soda is unhealthy so people would drink less of it if it cost more, and if they managed to keep the the bankruptcy lawyers away from the door for a while longer, all the better! We’ve written about these sin taxes of various sorts at length here and studied how well they’ve worked out for others. (Spoiler alert: they don’t.) What Cook County was attempting looked to be fraught with problems from the get-go and now the drama is playing out in a hot mess beyond even what I’d imagined. So poorly thought out was this plan that the county seems to be breaking the law no matter how they try to implement it. (CBS Local) More at the link |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #6 If my daughter went out to the corner to sell lemonade, I am curious how many laws would be broken. Selling a sugared beverage Operating without a business license Non-union stand assembly Failure to pay signage fee Failure to display nutrient label Not handicap accessible |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2017-08-13 19:25 |
| #5 A canny old clerk of Nantasket Once wove a statistical basket Of all his "investments," But, buried in Red cents, He tragically failed to unmask it. Gawd, that's crap. Placeholder? |
| Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 2017-08-13 19:11 |
| #4 When you see shit like this it's well past the time when we send Congresscritters to Washington to do nothing but repeal laws. State sales tax laws tax quite a few things in grocery stores, like (in Mass.) light bulbs, batteries, and many more non-food items. They also have meals taxes that apply to such things like the salads you make at the salad bar (since that's in a ready to eat state). I don't know where the USDA gets off telling states they can't tax simply because the currency used is in a different form, other than the usual officiousness of federal employee jackoffs. |
| Posted by: Raj 2017-08-13 10:56 |
| #3 And then the food stamp program from the Dept of Agriculture tells Chicago that sodas have long been covered by food stamps, and receipients can buy them and your'e not allowed to charge taxes on food stamp purchases. I'm totally serious here. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2017-08-13 09:37 |
| #2 There no end to the creativity and the evil of politicians when devising things to tax. To date, "Global warming/climate change" and "Obamacare" were the ultimate scams. SCOTUS even abetted the O-Care scam. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2017-08-13 08:03 |
| #1 They decided to save the people from themselves and simultaneously put a bunch of money in the city’s nearly empty coffers by imposing a sin tax on soda and other “sweetened beverages.” The main purpose, of course, is to add a bunch of public employees to the payrolls. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-08-13 01:57 |