Hail the Soda Tax

    What could be better than putting a tax on soft drinks?  Why should they escape tax?  It would provide needed money to balance the state budget and get people to drink less harmful soda.  This is the “Double Do gooder scheme:  They take your money and say you are better off for it.

            This is the plan in New York State, among others, which has a bit of a budget shortfall.  New York is talking about a cent per ounce tax.  You would hardly notice.  But on the other end it would add up.  But on a 12 ounce drink, you would pay 12 cents.  Of course they do things big in New York, at least where money is involved.  Last fall I was there for couple of days and the hotel vending machine charged $2.50 for a 20 ounce drink, just add another 20 cents.  I went out to a grocery store and bought a 2 liter bottle for about $2 which is high but not that high.  But these guys would add 66 cents to it. 

            People don’t like naysayers but there is a lot of “nay” to say about this.  Like most taxes, it will generally come out of the same pockets as the other taxes, just from another angle.  It isn’t like it would apply to some new group of people who are paying no taxes at all now.

            The big “nay” on any new tax is the overhead.  You have to come up with a scheme to collect the tax.  You have to find a way to make sure people pay and pay the correct amount.  You have to make sure the money doesn’t get diverted.  You have to hire new people to do all this.  If you increase an existing tax, you just have to change the rates.  This costs little but may be more noticeable. 

            Another big nay is that it is another step in the direction where we get nipped from every direction and can’t have any control over the situation. If there are a small number of visible taxes, the people have some control.  When it’s a little here and there, it is much harder.

            But at the end, the vast majority of taxes are paid by the same middle class lump of people.  The poor pay little on a tax like this.  There aren’t enough rich to drink enough sodas for this to matter.  So it’s us again.  

Comments

[los angeles notary]

It seems they tax everything in the consumer goods. Next up, they'll tax toiler paper.

[form 2290]

This is very disappointing because I love soda and this would increase prices for us consumers.

[tax relief attorney]

The thing about imposing taxes on "unhealthy foods" is it takes out the liberty of people in choosing what they eat- however harmful they are.