More Taxes

Prickwrinkle has to be glad for Hillary's election debacle because it provided cover for this:

• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle personally ensured her controversial new penny-an-ounce pop tax passed Thursday by breaking a rare tie vote among commissioners.
  
  The two-term board president stepped further into the glare of a spotlight because she's counting on the $224 million a year the beverage tax is expected to bring in to balance the books for a while.

Prickwrinkle doesn't seem to have gleaned any lessons from the mobility of the tax base. When Chicago enacted a dime on every bottle of water, people stopped buying water in Chicago. Suburban grocery stores and shopping clubs had to bring in water by the truckload to keep up with demand. We don't think Shortshanks reaped even half of the revenue projections his bean counters said would be generated.

We predict a similar situation with the County. Especially when we read this:

• It won't apply to drinks bought with a Link card issued to families in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because additional consumer taxes can't be added under the federal program.

Imagine that.

We also heard that this tax was levied for "health related" reasons. How much of the tax is going to "health related" programs? We're betting zero. And it says they're taxing iced tea drinks - what if the tea has no sugar? Diet sodas? Zero calorie sodas?

We're lucky enough to live close to a border where they don't tax the shit out of their citizens. Hopefully you do to.