Seattle is a city on a crazy train to the liberal utopia. They implemented a gun tax and mandated higher minimum wages (which unintentionally pushed people off welfare and housing programs). There’s a special high Earners tax. The city banned affordable and convenient plastic bags. Their proudly gay (and married) mayor only resigned after his fifth child sex assault accusation. And on January 1st, this west coast Sanctuary city began charging a sugary drink tax.
Related: Economic Moron Revisited – Soda Tax Costing Jobs as Sales Plummet
"Why do you hate the government so much?" they ask. pic.twitter.com/rodI1Yl9R2
— Devin Sena (@DevinSenaUI) January 5, 2018
John Gabriel has the details at Ricochet.
Seattle residents started the new year with a bad case of sticker shock followed by a sugar crash. A new tax of 1.75 cents per ounce was added to all sweetened beverages sold in the city. The move had public support in June when it was passed 7-1 by the Seattle City Council, but images of regret have been hitting social media as the bill came due Monday.
The experts predicted loads of revenue and promised to do good things for the people of Seattle with them. In reality, they’ll see sales plummet as buyers traipse into the suburbs to get the goods.
Philadelphia, which enacted a similar tax last year, overestimated the expected revenue. Sales of carbonated soft drinks fell 55 percent inside the city, while sales rose 38 percent in the towns that surround it. It achieved neither the financial goals nor the health goals.
And as the Ricochet article points out, lower income people and small business owners will be hit hardest.
Local convenience store owner Jong Kim is frustrated, to say the least:
“What can I do? I have no power,” he mused, shrugging his shoulders behind the counter at his store, Summit Foods. “Seattle is too expensive. Everything is a tax.”
And no, the tax is not levied at Starbucks, in case you were wondering. “All meal replacement drinks, powdered mixes, and most sugary coffee drinks…are exempt.”
So, if you buy a bottled lemonade, you pay the tax. If you buy Kool-Aid and mix it with water at home, no tax. If you buy a Venti Brown Sugar Shortbread Latte at Starbucks, the tax doesn’t apply. If you get a Tall Brown Sugar Shortbread Frappuccino, which has less sugar, it does.
Fear not! When the estimated $15 million in first-year revenue fails to materialize, the benevolent city council will find another way to rob it’s citizens because creating a Utopia is not cheap.
