New version of Toledo Talk

Seattle coffee fanatics oppose expresso tax - Hey, maybe Toledo needs an expresso tax. It would be a good way for Toledo to raise money for the city or the schools. Cities and states don't have a problem implementing a sin tax on tobacco and alcohol products. But tax coffee, lookout! All hell brakes loose. In Seattle, the money raised is for the kids, but Big Coffee opposes the tax. Therefore, Big Coffee must hate kids.

"... dime-a-cup tax proposed for espresso drinks on the Sept. 16 primary election ballot. The espresso-tax initiative — which would raise millions of dollars to go toward preschool and day-care programs — has attracted national attention, much of it incredulous."

"Charging an extra tax on Seattle's iconic drink strikes some as weird, like a cheesesteak tax in Philadelphia or a jambalaya surcharge in New Orleans."

(But it's not weird to tax tobacco and alcohol?)

"Backers of the initiative say it's nothing to laugh about. They tout it as a creative way to tax a luxury item to pay for a good cause."

"All those dimes, backers estimate, would add up to $7 million a year or more in revenue to subsidize day cares and preschools. The money would pay for wage increases and training classes for preschool teachers, subsidized preschool tuition for low-income families and other grants to day cares and preschools."

"[Big Coffee] Starbucks spokeswoman Audrey Lincoff said the company opposes it because it would be bad tax policy to single out espresso for a special tax."

I believe the way to take over the world is to control coffee not oil.
posted by jr to politics at 10:32 P.M. EST     (4 Comments)

Comments ...

"...it was the wrong way to pay for day care and preschool."

"By more than 2-to-1, voters rejected a 10-cent-a-cup tax on espresso drinks, ending a local debate and, perhaps, national amusement over whether Seattle would put a surcharge on its beloved beverage."

"John Burbank, whose Economic Opportunity Institute in Seattle came up with the idea of connecting coffee with kids, blamed the loss on the opponents' message that the tax would hurt small-business owners. He said the initiative succeeded in putting children's issues front and center."

I blame Big Coffee for the defeat.
posted by jr at 04:14 P.M. EST on Wed Sep 17, 2003     #

Also in Seattle,

"A Seattle initiative that would make adult marijuana possession the lowest law-enforcement priority was passing last night, leaving police and prosecutors concerned about a soft-on-drugs message. I-75 was promoted as a way to make the most of limited law-enforcement resources, though critics called it a veiled attempt to condone marijuana use. I-75's biggest financial backers included the national Marijuana Policy Project and Peter Lewis, head of Ohio-based Progressive Auto Insurance, which favor decriminalization."

Protect the latte, protect the wacky weed, and to hell with the kids.
posted by jr at 04:20 P.M. EST on Wed Sep 17, 2003     #

The idiots in Seattle found out what any idiot in Toledo will find out if they are stupid enough to try. The voters will not accept anything so ridiculous. Alcohol and tobacco taxes are bad enough, but they tax all products similarly, plus you have to be an adult to buy them.

But taxing an individual product because it would mainly affect "yuppies" is insane.

In addition to that, why should we encourage women to be single mothers since they might think "The expresso tax will help pay for childcare so I can go out to a club at night, get knocked up and start it all over again..."

Thank God Seattle voted it down Tuesday.

Blame "Big Coffee" on the defeat? Are you absolutely stupid? There was nothing to defeat...
posted by y2kpony at 10:14 A.M. EST on Thu Sep 18, 2003     #

"Are you absolutely stupid?" Probably. I never said I was smart.

I guess I need to work on my sarcastic humor. I thought the whole expresso tax thing was a joke at first. Nothing else to do in Seattle?

I was trying to be funny with this story and the Big Coffee reference, since we have Big Tabacco, Big Media, Big Oil, Big Log, Big Everything, and we are taxed on so much already.

Calm down. Have your tax-free coffee enema, and all will be well. I myself am heading to my favorite coffee place in a minute to have a tax-free cafe mocha, the coffee drink on training wheels, the coffee drink for the wannabees.

I just love the passion that coffee drinkers have for their beverage.

An expresso tax in Toledo would go unnoticed and it wouldn't work, because there aren't enough coffee houses. Now tax bowling or walleye fishing in Toledo, then you would have a war.
posted by jr at 08:58 A.M. EST on Fri Sep 19, 2003     #

<< Older Lucas County Restaurant Report    |    Jesse Jackson, problem solver or the pro... Newer >>

This is an old topic and is no longer allowing comments.