Bloomberg’s Cook County Soda Tax Repealed Months After its Implementation
Nanny staters hardest hit
Nanny staters are gonna nanny state.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s meddlesome agenda was dealt a blow Wednesday when Illinois’ Cook County voted to repeal its soda tax just months after it was adopted.
Liz Harrington at the Free Beacon:
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s crusade against soda has met another failure, as Chicago voted to end its taxation Wednesday.
Cook County commissioners voted 15-2 to repeal the 1-cent per ounce tax on soda, diet soda, sweetened coffees and teas, and sports drinks. The editorial board of the Chicago Tribune called the tax “highway robbery.” The tax added a $1.28 tax for a gallon of zero-calorie iced tea.
The vote is the latest in a series of losses for Bloomberg, who has poured millions into anti-soda campaigns.
The former New York City mayor spent at least $5 million on ads supporting the Cook County tax and vowed to spend “whatever it takes” to reelect commissioners who supported it.
Ultimately, only two commissioners voted against the repeal, which ends the tax officially on Dec. 1. The tax will be in effect for just four months.
Bloomberg has taken his anti-soda campaign nationally with little success.
The contentious tax was met with an abundance of drama and a legal battle before being implemented.
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Comments
Bloomberg needs to just go away with his elitist attitude. He hates the little people.
Remember his helicopter landing scandal?
It wasnt anger at the soda tax that did it in. There were several things going on 1- it was a cook county tax 2- it didnt affect surrounding counties 3- all taxes are lower in the counties surrounding cook county 4- chicago is cook county 5- from almost anyplace in Chicago your not more than 20 minutes drive time away from another county or state 6- by making that 20 minute drive to shop no soda tax … No bag tax … Lower gas tax … Lower cig tax…. Lower sales tax…lower booze tax…lots of people were making that 20 minute drive
Dude, I accidentaly down-thumbed your very correct post.
Sorry. You’re right.
So the fact that it was sold as a $0.01 tax without the public knowing that the tax applied per ounce didn’t cause anyone to be upset. And do you think the fact that bars had to calculate the amount of soda dispensed with a drink and tax accordingly didn’t have any effect on either bar owners or customers?
Yes, because people could evade some of the tax by going outside Chicago to shop, the tax didn’t bring in the money it was “sold” as generating. But since when did a tax which didn’t generate the amounts the Left sold it as bringing result in the Left deciding to eliminate the tax?
It wasn’t just not generating the expected revenue, it was generating negative revenue, by inducing people to shop outside the county, thereby avoiding all those other taxes too. When you have a setup like that you have to be careful to keep the tax differential low enough that most people don’t find it worth while driving the necessary distance to avoid it. This tax broke that.
You misspelled “Crook County.”
Oh food stamp users didnt pay the tax
This is pleasant news. I’d like to drink a toast in celebration. Where’s my 6-pack of non-extra-taxed 20-ounce bottled root beer?
“No good deed goes unpunished”, to coin a phrase. Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle has vowed to make the repeal of her tax as painful as possible. Layoffs have been promised for the most visible of services.
One wonders when the voters might get tired of one party rule…
As long as the dead continue to vote in Crook County, fuggedaboudit.