Soda Tax

[vendo81d]

I just saw on the news tonight that Philadelphia has voted to tax regular soft drinks at a rate of 2.5 cents per ounce.  That's 30 cents for a 12 ounce bottle or $7.20 per case.  We have to nip this in the bud as Barney Fife would say.  If this ever catches on where I live, it would raise my cost per case by about 50%.  It seems that the government bases its policies on what will screw me over.  I had a personal health insurance before the government decided to "fix" the system.  My insurance company kicked out all of the doctors in my existing plan and I had to buy a new plan.  My deductible went from $1750 to $6850 and my premium didn't go down.

[ss540]

But, the President said you could keep your plan and you would save an average of $2,500.  You reckon we were misled?

[vendo81d]

One of many lies.

[ajf5577]

Is that tax on packaged drinks, fountain over a certain size (like NYC), or both?

[vendo81d]

I want to correct some details.  The tax in Philadelphia is 1.5 cents per ounce, so it will be 18 cents on a 12 ounce soda, or $4.32 on a case.  That would still be about a 30 percent increase for me.  I also read that it applies to diet sodas too.  My understanding is that it applies to all forms of drinks and all sizes.  They sold it by saying that it would be used to build playgrounds, so they used the old sucker line "it's for the children."  I think the soft drink companies are going to sue.  I can't predict what our courts will do anymore.

We do have a nut job representative in Illinois who has been trying to get a 2.5 cent per ounce soda tax passed.  So far, her proposal hasn't gotten anywhere.

[ajf5577]

They sold the lottery in Indiana the same way. All of the proceeds would go to the schools. What they did was take the school general fund and reduce it by the amount of the lotto proceeds. Zero sum gain, and they spent the original funds on some pork barrel elsewhere.
They can't tax tobacco much more, so now they gotta go for soda (!?!)

[Jonathan816]

Easy solution will be people shopping in the town over that's not Philadelphia to buy the sugar drinks.   Tax is 1.5 cents per ounce.   

[vendo81d]

As I said earlier that tax applies to both diet and regular sodas.  Just because this is in only one city now doesn't mean it won't spread to other cities or states.  As I mentioned earlier, there has been a proposal in Illinois for a statewide tax.