Alderman Wants to Tax Bottled Water
cbs2chicago ^ | 08/14/07
(CBS) CHICAGO Cooling off with bottled water could soon cost you more within the Chicago city limits if one alderman has his way.
As CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman reports, Ald. George Cardenas (12th) wants to slap a tax of up to 25 cents on the cost of every bottle to help close a $217 million budget gap.
“People enjoy jogging or driving with a bottle of water. There’s a cost associated with this behavior. You have to pay for it,” said Cardenas, one of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s staunchest City Council supporters.
Cardenas noted that there’s a nearly $40 million shortfall in the city’s water and sewer funds, in part because of a decline in water usage.
“How is this possible when we have a water system that’s won honors? It’s because bottled water has become a $15 billion industry that’s growing at a rate of 20 to 30 percent a year,” he said.
Cardenas also said a bottled water tax would help the environment by dissuading people from buying the plastic bottles that end up in landfills.
But Chicagoans CBS 2 met on the street early Tuesday did not like the idea of the tax.
"Let them tax cigarettes, not water," said Chicago resident Brian Lynch.
"Ten to 20, that's crazy. It's not cigarettes or anything, it's bottled water, so that's ridiculous," added Chicago resident Lazzerick Young. "I'd probably go towards filtered water, maybe, and not do the bottled water."
"We're going to have to vote him out, because that's not good," said Justina Miles. "I buy a lot of bottled water."
"So raise the taxes on pop. Why would you want to raise it on something that's healthy?" said Dennis Hopkins. "You can give a newborn baby bottled water. It's good for you."
Wendy Abrams, a spokeswoman for the city’s Office of Budget and Management, said the mayor’s budget team will “work with aldermen on any new idea aimed at generating new revenue for the city.” But raising taxes remains a “last resort,” she said.
Many U.S. cities have cut off municipal purchases of bottled water. But Joseph Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association, said he knows of no other city that has tried to tax bottled water.
"Bottled water is a safe, healthy, convenient beverage that consumers find refreshing. Any action that would discourage consumers from drinking this healthy beverage is a bad idea and not in the public interest," he said.
Doss said the bottled vs. tap argument doesn’t hold water because 75 percent of bottled water consumers drink both. And bottled water companies are attempting to defuse the landfill argument. They’re using much lighter-weight plastics in their containers and have reduced the amount of plastic resin in those bottles by 40 percent over the past five years, he said.
Noting that plastic petroleum containers make up only one-third of 1 percent of the total U.S. waste stream, he said, "Any effort to reduce the environmental impact of packaging must focus on all consumer goods and not just target bottled water or any one industry."
CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
It wouldn't be that Chicago has a nice history of corruption and financial mismanagement.
For a city of 3 million, each person's share is roughly $72 or $13 for the water/sewage part. Not going anywhere with this...
Once you start taxing bottled water, people will move to new products or old standbys like powdered water.
posted by charlatan on Aug 14, 2007 at 06:29:32 pm #