We have just about taxed ourselves to such a degree on some fronts that we can’t tax anymore so we have to open a new frontier, soda. We spent 50 years demonizing tobacco, excuse me, cigarettes, adding taxes on the product to such a point that the tax is greater than the cost of the product. Now some have set their eye on soft drinks, watch, we are going to tax pop.
This reminds me of the play Music Man. “Oh we got trouble, right here in river city, trouble with a T that rhymes with P that stands for pool.” Yes, we will focus our attention on an innocuous product, demonize it, tax it, destroy the market for it, lose the jobs to produce it and move on to another taxable commodity. If you work for Pepsi or Coke look out
We got rid of DDT a long time ago because a group of people demonized the chemical. Not based on fact, as we find out today, but based on a story of how the birds will disappear some spring. Now that millions of people in Africa are dying from malaria the world is thinking of bringing DDT back.
But don’t let the soda tax get to you, Mayor Ravenstall wants to tax hospital rooms after all aren’t they just hotel rooms with extra services? What about the mayor’s tax on water? I guess the cost of EPA compliance isn’t enough to drive the price of water and sewage up, let’s put another tax on one of the necessities of life.
Don’t forget all those college students, tax ‘em. Come to the city and work all day, pay your all day parking tax in addition to the 50 percent parking tax, in addition to the right to work in the city tax. Go ahead, chase a few more businesses out of town or out of the county, Butler can use the business. Who needs those universities and hospitals?
The reason for all the additional taxes is to pay for the pension funding they should have been paying into for the past 30 years. I wonder what they have funded that was more important than employee pensions. That might be an interesting study.
Oh we got trouble, right here in river city, trouble with a T that rhymes with P and that stands for……POP!
