It’s for the children!
New York Governor David Paterson’s budget includes an 18% tax on non-diet soda, meaning if you decide to avoid the poison known as aspertame in your soda, you’re going to be paying more for it. I don’t drink soda, and I don’t care one bit if it was $200 a bottle, but I did find one thing rather annoying.
Yesterday, during an interview, some moron woman on the street said that the tax is a good thing because it’ll keep kids from buying soda and might help the obesity epidemic in New York City. The Governor has hinted, similarly, that raising taxes on television and soda will increase activity and make people think twice about popping open a coke and vegging out on the couch.
The only problem with our Governor’s logic? He isn’t paying attention to punitive taxes we’ve tried implementing in the past. New York City and State have tried for years to milk every penny out of smokers they could. In fact, the tax on a pack of cigarettes makes up almost 50% of their price and yet, despite the price of a pack of cigarettes hovering well above $7-$8 for years, the number of smokers hasn’t moved, and when it has, it’s because of health problems associated with smoking and not the cost of a pack. If you don’t believe me, ask someone who’s quit. I know a few who have, but they did it because of the health benefits, not the cost. Most smokers I know on this very day don’t give a damn about how much a cigarette actually costs; they just need their fix.
Both Governor Paterson and the dope who was interviewed by CBS need to get their crap straight. These taxes are not designed to be anything else but a cash grab for the state government that’s too bloated to make real tangible cuts. $4.1 billion dollars isn’t a whole lot of money if you stop paying every State Senator to have 30 staffers sit in Albany and do nothing. Or maybe you stop paying for the EZ Passes that officials have been abusing for years (they claim it’s research; they need to know how the system works so they need a government-supplied EZ Pass). Or maybe you stop the stupid summer lunch programs in schools when school isn’t in session. How about all the dumb advertising for Niagara falls? Or maybe you can even stop sending me fourteen tons of mail right around every election on the state’s dime? I wonder how much that would save?
Nope, none of that. There are cuts in the budget, but let’s be honest; the cuts aren’t where a bulk of the money will be coming from, and knowing New York, those cuts are only proposed; they’ll never happen. The taxes on us, however, will be passed because in the end, Albany doesn’t feel that pinch.
We do.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:33 am
I agree on the Niagra Falls advertising, the school lunches, the political mailings, etc. I'm fine with some of the taxing… cigarettes, alcohol, but soda? And even if you tax soda, taxing movie tickets?! Ok, so the economy is crap, people are out of work, but hey, let's just make it more expensive for them to get a little bit of enjoyment out of going to the movies. That's just sucky. And why is soda's tax higher than beers? That's just wrong.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:40 am
This is exactly what I don't understand. You pick a time when the economy is in crisis and people are miserable to overtax the things that might provide them a little bit of an escape? People are living paycheck to paycheck and now they have to pay more for pretty much everything they do. I'm sorry but you don't tax your way out of this kind of situation.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Next they're going to outlaw prostitution and pot. They just want to take away all our fun.
Seriously, I'm low on funds, and I need three things to keep myself sane. Soda, music and movies. Ok, I just found a website that lets me watch movies that are in the theatres, so I'll just resign myself to crappy quality. But soda and music! Damn, yo. That'll drive me crazy. I'ma starta revolution!
December 28th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
How can this happen? Is there any person who really thinks that this is the best solution for the US problems? It will only turn everyone towards diet soda, and that is certainly not good. I wonder how much will this last, I hope that someone will realize that the solution is simply ridiculous and forget about it.