Althouse: "Berkeley election 2014: Voters pass historic soda tax..."

November 5, 2014

"Berkeley election 2014: Voters pass historic soda tax..."

News from the left coast.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...: I'd better not hear "keep your laws off my body" from you clowns ever again.; 11/5/14, 10:28 AM
Birkel said...: And with the $15 an hour minimum wage they'll be able to afford all the new taxes.

As Charlie Sheen would say: "Winning!"; 11/5/14, 10:29 AM
Birkel said...: Did that need a tag?; 11/5/14, 10:29 AM
Birkel said...: < sarc; 11/5/14, 10:30 AM
Bobber Fleck said...: It is gratifying to see at least a few Americans are focused on the truly pressing issues of our time.

My daughter refers to issues like the soda tax as a "first world issue".; 11/5/14, 10:33 AM
Peter said...: The tax is a penny an ounce (that's 67.6 oz in a 2 liter bottle).

Perhaps it'll increase sales of bottled water at restaurants (in lieu of soda), but I'd expect Berkeley residents to have the smarts to buy soda for home consumption outside of Berkeley?; 11/5/14, 10:44 AM
traditionalguy said...: Burp!; 11/5/14, 10:44 AM
CatherineM said...: They live their taxes. They said yes to all of the increases on the ballot.; 11/5/14, 10:48 AM
MadisonMan said...: Chocolate Milk is exempt. Phew. For now, I guess. What will be the unintended consequence of the tax, I wonder.

I wonder what they'll spend the tax revenue on. Raises for the civil servants?; 11/5/14, 10:57 AM
David said...: Now that is comprehensive local election coverage!; 11/5/14, 11:08 AM
PoNyman said...: My wife is a consultant on sales and use taxes for medium to large businesses so she has been following this issue.
I told her I hoped it would pass just so that we could see what happens in crazy economically liberal areas, even though it will be a huge headache for her. At least for her sake, San Fran didn't pass theirs.; 11/5/14, 11:27 AM
Anonymous said...: Berkeley's minimum wage is $10 which is one dollar above the statewide minimum. It will increase again in two years. It's Seattle that has the $15 wage although I think that also is being phased in over a few years.; 11/5/14, 11:29 AM
Mark Nielsen said...: Regressive. I'm guessing that if you graph soda consumption on the y-axis vs increasing income on the x-axis, you'd see a negative slope.; 11/5/14, 11:35 AM
Anonymous said...: Cigarette taxes to high in NY?
Smuggle in smokes.
Soda tax too high in Berkeley?
Smuggle in Dr. Pepper; 11/5/14, 11:38 AM
Julie C said...: I was so happy watching the national news last night and miserable almost every time I saw what was happening locally.

Sigh. I have to keep reminding myself: we have great wine (which I'll need to get through four more years of Jerry Brown), great weather and lots of nice restaurants.

My local district just sent a Republican woman to the state assembly so there's that.; 11/5/14, 11:40 AM
jr565 said...: Why would you tax just soda?; 11/5/14, 11:45 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Wow, a logo with kids holding up "Yes on D" signs seems like it should have elicited some...interesting responses on the ol' Internets, there.; 11/5/14, 11:46 AM
jr565 said...: No Ding dong tax? Or ho ho tax? No candy tax? or Doritos tax? Or Entenmans cake tax? Or Ice Cream Tax? Or cookie tax?; 11/5/14, 11:47 AM
jr565 said...: I fail to see why soda, and only soda is some social ill needing to be taxed more than it already is.; 11/5/14, 11:49 AM
jr565 said...: Here's an idea. if you don't want your kids to drink soda, don't buy soda.; 11/5/14, 11:57 AM
Anonymous said...: jr,

They don't want your kids to drink soda.

They don't have any kids.; 11/5/14, 12:16 PM
Sigivald said...: Berkeley. Good times.

Build a wall, seal the entrances, airlift in food.; 11/5/14, 12:30 PM
Wince said...: "Soda tax..."

Can people from Boston avoid the tax because they call it "tonic"?

Maybe the Berkley cops can choke to death a black man while arresting him for selling bootleg untaxed sodas?; 11/5/14, 12:35 PM
Jupiter said...: Sigivald said...
"Berkeley. Good times.

Build a wall, seal the entrances, airlift in food."

Why the food?; 11/5/14, 12:58 PM
kimsch said...: If I had a store in Berkeley, I would stop carrying soda. Completely. Then I wouldn't have to reprogram my cash register, or have to change the way I pay the sales taxes.

If I lived in Berkeley, I would buy any soda outside of the city (if I was a buyer of soda, which I am not except rarely.); 11/5/14, 1:18 PM
Anonymous said...: They'll come for the Soda Streams next or were they included in the ordinance?; 11/5/14, 1:18 PM
TCR James said...: They misspelled "hysteric."; 11/5/14, 1:49 PM
n.n said...: Global Warming. Is it limited to carbonated sodas?; 11/5/14, 3:16 PM
Temujin said...: To the question of why they would just tax soda in Berkeley, the answer is: Because it's the only thing left in Berkeley that wasn't taxed. hahahaha

Anyway…it's good to see that the Ecology Center was a main backer of this proposition. After all, nothing says 'ecology' like a tax on Vernor's Ginger Ale.

What's the weather like in that bubble, I wonder?; 11/5/14, 3:19 PM
Anonymous said...: I wonder what unintended consequences this tax will have. The first thing I can think of is that some marginally-profitable restaurants and convenience stores will close and the workers will all lose their jobs. "Better broke than drink Coke" could be the slogan of this campaign.; 11/5/14, 4:30 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Peter et al:
The big-box shopping for Berkeley residents is ...
not in Berkeley. It's in Emeryville, a few miles south.
I envision an expansion of the neighborhood street barricade program (in place since the 70s), to permit only a few points of ingress to the City of Berkeley. At which locations a new cadre of tax collectors, funded by this tax, will (I hope) "eat out their substance".; 11/6/14, 5:56 PM