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.
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