Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter went on the offensive this morning, appearing on Fox 29's a.m. programming to claim he didn't lose the war on soda - even though his soda tax was shot down by Philadelphia City Council.
(Don't start a parade for City Council, either, they raised property taxes 9.9%)
Nutter blamed the "soda lobby" which, in this case, is just regular people who don't want to pay extra for soda because it's "bad for them". Nutter claims his idea to gouge small businesses and consumers with a soda tax is due to a "significant public health problem" in the City of Philadelphia.
If having lots of fat people is a "significant health problem", what the hell does Nutter call all the ugly people we have here, too?
Let's be serious: Nutter is simply trying to promote a nanny government. It first started years ago with taxing cigarettes, now it's on to soda. Pretty soon, Philadelphia will be forcing people to exercise. That idea seemed to temporarily work out for Hitler, so why not try it in the Cradle of Liberty, right?
Wrong. Nutter's soda tax is epic fail for one simple reason. Even if you don't agree with a Conservative or libertarian mindset, you can't deny the law of the land:
Fox 29 asked councilman Bill Green on Friday why the soda tax went flat in council on Thursday.
"Two reasons: it's illegal and so if we had passed it and relied on that revenue, instead of another revenue measure, we would be in big trouble, because we can raise revenue mid-term next year," Green said.
"It is essentially a second gross-receipts tax," Green said. "Pennsylvania courts are very clear that you can't have two taxes on the same product. This would be a second tax."
Mayor Nutter ain't afraid of the law, though. Remember when he tried to ban guns city-wide in complete defiance not just to Pennsylvania laws but the 2nd Amendment as well?
Nutter's not going down without a fight. His Kermit The Frog voice depicts a City that is going through some health crisis never seen since The Plague.
Apparently Nutter has never paid attention: there have always been fat people here, fat kids even more so. You can't force parents and tell them what and what not to feed their children. You can't force lifestyle choices upon people. This isn't Los Angeles, that stuff doesn't work here.
If anything, Nutter should put a quarter into the City budget ever time he comes up with an idiotic idea. That $150 million budget gap would be closed by next Wednesday.
- AP
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Comments
Agreed. Besides, if they get rid of all the fat kids who will be the Sumo wrestlers of tomorrow? We don't want Philadelphia to have a Sumo Gap!
Here, here John: Besides...Who will be the sumo wrestlers and bartenders and Union contracters that get paid $30/hour to stand outside and drink water?
Well, it's now the law in Washington State. Our governor signed it last month. I've never heard of the "second-gross receipts" law before, and I don't know if it exists in this state. But it DOES make sense. Sort of a double jeopardy type of law, applied to taxes instead of actual crimes. (Though some ppl seem to think that taxes ARE a crime!) And considering our governor is our former 3-Term AG and rumored to be on Obama's short list for the next Solicitor General, I'd say she has a very good understanding of our state's laws.
But, what WA does have is citizen-sponsored initiatives, and our #1 initiative producer, Tim Eyeman, has already begun circulating a statewide petition to get a soda tax repeal on November's ballot. So you might want to keep your eyes on WA to see what happens with our soda tax. (And since there's a repeal petition going around, it's possible that the courts will delay enacting it until either it fails to make it onto the ballot or voters decide come November
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