View Full Version : Boulder passed the nation's steepest soda tax
How did I miss this? [Shake][Pepsi] I don't really drink sodas but the stupid is strong with this city. The bottom line is a $3.6mil increase to the coffers.
Boulder passed the nation's steepest soda tax; now, to implement i
On Election Day, voters in Boulder approved by an 8-point margin (http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_30551847/sugary-drink-tax-holds-solid-lead-after-early) a tax on distributors of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages. At 2 cents per ounce, it's the steepest such measure in any of the seven U.S. cities that tax sugary drinks.
Now, to implement it.
According to Kathy Haddock — the senior assistant city attorney who was Boulder's primary legal liaison on the issue during what was an unusually contentious and uniquely expensive campaign (http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_30536721/soda-tax-fight-nearly-twice-expensive-any-other) — a group of staff members will soon assemble to prepare for the rollout of the ordinance, scheduled for July 1.
Haddock said the city hasn't begun sorting through the various nuances and challenges of administering the tax.
But one scenario she and other Boulder staffers know they'll have to prepare for involves business owners heading out of city limits to exploit what could be a loophole in the plan.
It seems like an easy way to skirt the rules: If a restaurant owner wants to avoid paying more to a distributor for a delivery of, say, sugar-sweetened lemonade, why not drive to Louisville or Longmont and buy the product there, where the tax is not in effect?
"I don't know if that person does become a distributor or not, or how we would implement it," Haddock said. "That's one of those real-life examples where we'll be thinking about how's the appropriate way to treat them."
Berkeley, Calif., which was the first city in the country to approve a sugary drink tax, closed the loophole with a policy that turns anyone who heads out of city limits for their goods into a distributor as soon as they return.
"Whoever is bringing it to the store or restaurant from outside the city would be subject," said Matthai Chakko, a spokesman for Berkeley. "If somebody goes to a store outside the city and buys it and brings it in, they are distributing it inside the city of Berkeley.
"If they want to buy it from somebody else within the city, then they would not be distributing it."
Haddock said she also expects the city will have to respond to requests for ordinance exemptions from businesses that believe they, for whatever reason, shouldn't be taxed.
For example, some makers of the health-nut favorite kombucha (http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_30532947/kombucha-an-unexpected-casualty-boulder-sugary-drink-tax), many varieties of which will be taxed because they contain more than 5 grams of added sugar per 12 ounces, hinted before the election that they might try to wriggle out of it if the measure passed.
Anyone seeking an exemption, though, will have to justify the request, which won't be easy.
"We'd have to make a recommendation about whether we think (a request) complies with the initiative, and if it does, then council could adopt it," Haddock said. "But we really have to pay attention to the actual words of the amendment."
When confronted about the kombucha issue ahead of the election, the group that authored and campaigned for the tax made clear in interviews that the beverage wasn't an "unintended" casualty of the measure, but rather thrown in deliberately along with other drinks high in added sugars.
Thus, it's likely an uphill fight for any business or industry seeking to exempt itself from Boulder's tax.
Meanwhile, the city must also determine how it wants to distribute the revenue that will come in as a result of the tax. It's expected to raise $3.8 million in the first year, with nearly all of that money earmarked for public health programming, according to the original ordinance.
But what, exactly, that programming looks like has not yet been determined. The original plan was that a committee would make recommendations for revenue allocation to the City Council, which would then OK a spending plan.
No such committee has been convened yet, and the city isn't quite sure who will be making those recommendations.
"We do have to figure out how we're going to do that," Haddock said.
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_30593248/boulder-passed-nations-steepest-soda-tax-now-implement
colorider
01-26-2017, 16:18
Fucking martians.
DavieD55
01-26-2017, 16:33
I hope small businesses exploit and take advantage of any loopholes in order find a way around their BS taxes.
GilpinGuy
01-26-2017, 16:38
I spend as little of my $ in Boulder as possible. Fuck them.
Zundfolge
01-26-2017, 16:46
This would be a wonderful time to own a convenience store just outside of Boulder city limits.
I also assume this ends free refills at restaurants in Boulder.
Hurrah for the nanny state.
So...who wants to go up and pass out sodas some day? LOL
Shop Longmont
Shop Niwot
$$$$$$
I’ll bet just like demonrats always do, the estimated tax revenue numbers are based on no change in current buying behavior. I would love to have a grocery store just down the road. I can’t imagine any consumers who buys soda would buy in a Boulder grocery store. Does this tax include diet soda as well? This will be a nightmare for small convenience stores trying to figure out how to ring things up at the register with different taxes on each item.
Boulder. 100,000 people surrounded by reality.
Great-Kazoo
01-26-2017, 17:56
Not surprised , Another We have to pass it before we know what's in it law.
how the fuk can the voting public vote in Favor of a tax that no one knows where the money is going. Outside of it being another liberal enclave, how does this work.
It's expected to raise $3.8 million in the first year, with nearly all of that money earmarked for public health programming, according to the original ordinance.
So TV/radio programs about public health? Or do they mean providing healthcare to bums?
Eh. Whatever.
A- I avoid Boulder like the plague.
B- I don't really drink sugary drinks anyways.
I say the fat people in Boulder should file some kind of discrimination law suit.
Who is this "Boulder?"
Now I remember, they're part of the asshats that got us these lame gun laws in 2013.
fuktards.
thedave1164
01-26-2017, 19:01
LOL, some place in PA passed a similar law, and it hasn't worked as they thought.
Liberals are really insane
BushMasterBoy
01-26-2017, 19:11
Spend the tax money for more birth control of liberals.
I say the fat people in Boulder should file some kind of discrimination law suit.
Who says you have to be fat to drink a sugary beverage? Some of the people I've known that would eat a quart of ice cream as "lunch", or eat an entire bag of Hershey's Nuggets in a meeting, and drank sodas all the time, were skinny people. They had the metabolism of a humming bird.
Who says you have to be fat to drink a sugary beverage? Some of the people I've known that would eat a quart of ice cream as "lunch", or eat an entire bag of Hershey's Nuggets in a meeting, and drank sodas all the time, were skinny people. They had the metabolism of a humming bird.
Well, I guess that rules out the law suit.
beast556
01-26-2017, 19:43
Im at a loss for words, I just don't know how you can be this stupid.
I’ll bet just like demonrats always do, the estimated tax revenue numbers are based on no change in current buying behavior. I would love to have a grocery store just down the road. I can’t imagine any consumers who buys soda would buy in a Boulder grocery store. Does this tax include diet soda as well? This will be a nightmare for small convenience stores trying to figure out how to ring things up at the register with different taxes on each item.
2 cents per ounce makes it easy. 12 ounce can? Add 24 cents to the cost. 20oz bottle? Add 40 cents.
Except for the smallest shops, it's all programmed into the register, the cashier doesn't have to calculate anything.
My guess it it will actually be a net of zero, or even a loss. Not to mention all the store owner admin frees that will get passed on to purchasers. How many extra city employees are going to be needed to enforce?
Great-Kazoo
01-26-2017, 20:22
I say the fat people in Boulder should file some kind of discrimination law suit.
After saturdays march, there shouldn't be any fat people.
2 cents per ounce makes it easy. 12 ounce can? Add 24 cents to the cost. 20oz bottle? Add 40 cents.
Except for the smallest shops, it's all programmed into the register, the cashier doesn't have to calculate anything.
I'd wager there's less than 0.02% of people out there on a register could do change in their head, let alone basic multiplication . If it weren't for "programmed" registers society still be standing in line waiting for our change
The ever present dumbing down of society
Wonder what the old 7-11 big gulp (or whatever their biggest drink is now) would cost or how they would account for it. Weigh it then add ice after you pay?
The work around will be buying the sweetener on it's own, and having a make your own soda deal, like the roll your own cigarette machines at smoke shops. Wait, isn't that how soda machines work? If you're paying $.02 per ounce of just sweetener, then the drink you can make out of said sweetener would go a long way and help even out the cost.
GilpinGuy
01-26-2017, 21:30
That's an expensive work around for a dumb ass tax. New equipment, training, products, etc. Morons.
They'll end up screwing everyone who uses the fountains at convenience stores to buy diet soda (me) and charge them as well. Very few will even notice or care because it's "just a few cents" (like the bag tax).
And when I do drink pop, it's diet because all that sugar is sickening to me. Not that the chemicals in diet stuff is good for you, but the taste of all that sugar is just ewwwww to me.
GilpinGuy
01-26-2017, 21:33
I wonder if the non-sugar sweetening folks (Splenda, etc.) contribute to the coffers of these initiatives.
That's an expensive work around for a dumb ass tax. New equipment, training, products, etc. Morons.
They'll end up screwing everyone who uses the fountains at convenience stores to buy diet soda (me) and charge them as well. Very few will even notice or care because it's "just a few cents" (like the bag tax).
And when I do drink pop, it's diet because all that sugar is sickening to me. Not that the chemicals in diet stuff is good for you, but the taste of all that sugar is just ewwwww to me.
I forgot to mention that while that could be a work-around, I doubt anyone will go through the trouble. For $100 you can get a soda stream at home and make anything you want taste like soda.
Soda streams are awesome by the way, and a great way to cut juice with water and still have kids love love love it.
2 cents per ounce makes it easy. 12 ounce can? Add 24 cents to the cost. 20oz bottle? Add 40 cents.
Except for the smallest shops, it's all programmed into the register, the cashier doesn't have to calculate anything.
I was trying to confuse them with reality, so maybe they would give up. You are making sense, doing the hard work (math) for them. Are you sure you aren’t on the Boulder City Counsel or something?
GilpinGuy
01-26-2017, 22:35
For $100 you can get a soda stream at home and make anything you want taste like soda.
Soda streams are awesome by the way, and a great way to cut juice with water and still have kids love love love it.
It took me a few years to stop saying "soda" and convert to pop. You f-ing with me?
Great-Kazoo
01-26-2017, 22:50
That's an expensive work around for a dumb ass tax. New equipment, training, products, etc. Morons.
They'll end up screwing everyone who uses the fountains at convenience stores to buy diet soda (me) and charge them as well. Very few will even notice or care because it's "just a few cents" (like the bag tax).
And when I do drink pop, it's diet because all that sugar is sickening to me. Not that the chemicals in diet stuff is good for you, but the taste of all that sugar is just ewwwww to me.
Diet drinks ? that sounds like a prius version of a soda drinker. NEW YORK CITY!
It took me a few years to stop saying "soda" and convert to pop. You f-ing with me?
yeah they say shit differently out here.
But what separates us from other transplants is.... We didn't start a petition to change it, did we ;)
Anyone have stats on the Denver candy bar ban? I'd be interested in seeing how successful that was/is.
My guess is that Boulder will see no enhanced revenue and the surrounding towns will see an increase in soda sales. $3.8mil? How about "0" you stupid fawks! I doubt it will happen but i can dream, can't I?
GilpinGuy
01-26-2017, 23:07
yeah they say shit differently out here.
But what separates us from other transplants is.... We didn't start a petition to change it, did we ;)
Hell no. [Awesom]
GilpinGuy
01-26-2017, 23:11
Anyone have stats on the Denver candy bar ban? I'd be interested in seeing how successful that was/is.
My guess is that Boulder will see no enhanced revenue and the surrounding towns will see an increase in soda sales. $3.8mil? How about "0" you stupid fawks! I doubt it will happen but i can dream, can't I?
Between you and me [Roll1] I haven't seen a local Beverage & Food establishment charge for the plastic bags. Is it not in effect yet or are they just ignoring the dumb ass law?
It took me a few years to stop saying "soda" and convert to pop. You f-ing with me?
I grew up saying "pop" but purposely adopted soda. That's beside the point though, because I was talking about one of these: https://www.amazon.com/SodaStream-Source-Sparkling-Water-Starter/dp/B00EPEALGU/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1485495678&sr=1-2&keywords=sodastream
Between you and me [Roll1] I haven't seen a local Beverage & Food establishment charge for the plastic bags. Is it not in effect yet or are they just ignoring the dumb ass law?
Boulder does. Spineless.....
The power that bes, in Ned, shoved it down the throats and got a 100% FU for compliance. That powers was soundly kicked to the curb in the last election. The sustainability twats still rub their naughty bits about all things "nanny state" bitch and moan but that's about all they do.
Meh. Every 2-3 years we'll drive through Boulder on the way to Estes Park. We make sure to light up so we can blow our cigar and cigarette smoke out the windows into their precious hippie air, but we never stop and spend money there. Took a shit at McDonalds once I believe.....
ColoradoTJ
01-27-2017, 09:34
Where is this Boulder you speak of?
I may have driven through once in the 90's......
Everyone who has been in a Waffle House in Georgia knows every "soda" and "pop" is a coke, and then you specify Sprite, Coke, etc.
If I remember, I'll find the Lewis Grizzard bit on Youtube about how Yankees talk. It's hilarious.
Everyone who has been in a Waffle House in Georgia knows every "soda" and "pop" is a coke, and then you specify Sprite, Coke, etc.
Yep.
Some said sugar water but Coke was the main term for soda pops.
newracer
01-27-2017, 11:27
http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2012-11-09-Screenshot20121109at3.05.00PM.png
Rucker61
01-27-2017, 14:10
Everyone who has been in a Waffle House in Georgia knows every "soda" and "pop" is a coke, and then you specify Sprite, Cocola, etc.
Fixed it for you.
Hay Joe what you in jail for? I was selling some weed in a "dry" county; what about yourself? They got me big time; I was running 2 cases of Mtn Dew when they nabbed me.
OK, wait one sec.
Just soda tax?
What about all them pumps the fat girls get at starbucks?
or the Krispy Cremes,
or ...
stupid fawkers.
OK, wait one sec.
Just soda tax?
What about all them pumps the fat girls get at starbucks?
or the Krispy Cremes,
or ...
stupid fawkers.
It's idiotic. The main unhealthy ingredient in pop is sugar which can be purchased by the truck load. Put a few tbsp in scan of pop though & it's deadly!
Hay Joe what you in jail for? I was selling some weed in a "dry" county; what about yourself? They got me big time; I was running 2 cases of Mtn Dew when they nabbed me.
[ROFL2]
A world gone mad.
wctriumph
01-29-2017, 00:08
Totally stupid people get elected by totally stupid people and pass totally stupid laws for totally stupid people.
Makes perfect sense.
OK, wait one sec.
Just soda tax?
What about all them pumps the fat girls get at starbucks?
or the Krispy Cremes,
or ...
stupid fawkers.
Don't even start thinking about sugar in cereals, your head will explode.
JohnTRourke
01-29-2017, 09:50
they might actually raise money if they taxed starbucks/fancy coffee. More sugar in those anyway, if they actually thought it was bad.
no matter if they collect an additional penny or not, lots of new bureaucrats will be needed to enforce, define and administer the "law".
Once you realize all government programs are just jobs programs, it all makes a lot more sense.
Great-Kazoo
01-29-2017, 11:18
they might actually raise money if they taxed starbucks/fancy coffee. More sugar in those anyway, if they actually thought it was bad.
no matter if they collect an additional penny or not, lots of new bureaucrats will be needed to enforce, define and administer the "law".
Once you realize all government programs are just jobs programs, it all makes a lot more sense.
the new mantra is
Think of the Revenue
JohnTRourke
01-29-2017, 11:59
the new mantra is
Think of the Revenue
new?
hell that's always been the mantra
Just follow the money and the solution presents itself.
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