Food & Drink Mar 15, 2010 at 10:15 am

Comments

1
This same response holds true for most of the other tax-raising proposals that people are crazy up-in-arms about. Can Jamie Pedersen please write polite, reasonable summaries about those too? Not that it will convince people without reason.
2
Erm, I should have said "people without the ability to reason" for clarity.
3
I can't believe we weren't taxing candy and gum before now.
4
Thanks for getting the word out about (a part of) our absurdly regressive tax structure, Dan. I work for a local nonprofit and we've been calling our members, asking them to let their reps know the House revenue bill needs to pass.

Next up: income tax! Please, Washington? Can we pull our heads out of our asses and stop making the poorest people in the state pay most of our taxes?

And, in my perfect world, that'll be followed up by legalization/taxation of that sticky, icky wünderdrug that the kids (and adults, and teens, tweens, and deputy mayors alike) are raging about these days... And then we can all go to the doctor when we need to, right? ...Right?
5
"candy and gum are not necessities."

Not only that but they represent added health costs if one is to take into account the cavities and dental problems and other associated with the consumption of too much sugar.
6
Mr Pederson's response is transparently disingenuous. It's not a question of candy being a necessity. The question is why are we singling out candy among all those exempted non-necessary items. It's a cowards tax: aimed at the trivial luxury with the least powerful lobbying connections, and it's indicative of the political cowardice that dominates Olympia.
7
you DO realize that taxing candy will make Washington taxes MORE regressive, don't you...
8
I think candy is being "singled out" because a whole shitload of other states have already realized that it isn't actual food and shouldn't receive the tax breaks that food receives. This is really just the cancellation of a previously enjoyed privilege--should we really be retaining that privilege rather than, yknow, saving people's lives?
9
@7: O rly? Asplain, please. Your reasoning: show it to me.
10
Hmm, I went to high school with the great grand daughter of Mary See. Not sure if that fact is relevant to anything but she was suuuuuuuuuper hot.
11
No more food stamp money spent on candy for the kiddies! Ha! Ha! You can't have none 'cause yo momma on the welfare!
12
I gotta tell you I was shocked when I moved to a state that DIDN'T tax candy and soda. I spent the first 25 years of my life in the hell of having to pay 5% more for my candy and soda treats. I'm so much less taxed now that my candy and soda are tax-free, that I feel like spending all that extra coin on a big fat yacht. And it only took me 13,333,333 $1.50 bottles of soda to save enough tax to hit that big old $1,000,000 saved mark (533,333 a year!). Or, to look at it another way, 2,000,000 tax-free $1 candy bars to pay for college and grad school (219 a day)! Alas, with D.C.'s local population of 600,000, it would only take 3.5 TAXED candy bars a year to give a community service organization a big fat $100,000 check, or 22 TAXED $1.50 bottles of soda a year to pump $1,000,000 into homeless services (that would probably go a long way to fixing up the defunct hospital we're now warehousing them in). But, but, that would mean an extra $1.83 out of my pocket to pay for that junk food...and, well, how am I supposed to meet my caloric needs on a tight budget when it costs me soooooo much more for that little enjoyment?
13
Excuse me, but could someone check Satan's thermometer, please? I think LC just typed something coherent.
14
I would happily pay the candy tax if I lived in WA, but kinaidos @6 has a point; one could imagine an endless series of special taxes justified by endless shouting and arm-waving, rather than manning up and raising income or property taxes. Breakfast cereal? Most is little better than crumbled candy bars. Tax everything but rolled oats and corn-meal mush! Toilet paper? Tax the, um, shit out of it--I've got shrubs in my yard with large green leaves, including some evergreens, so t.p. is hardly "essential." On and on.
15
A recent study showed junk food taxes are more effective at changing behavior than healthy food subsidies--but to address the issues of regressivity (did I make that word up?), we'll probably need some combo: a discouragement to eat unhealthy foods combined with access to cheap, plentiful healthy alternatives. I just wrote about this issue on Sightline's blog last week: http://daily.sightline.org/daily_score/a…
16
Yes, sir, I would LOVE to live in a state where See's Candies guides public policy.
17
@14, and one could imagine an endless series of the repeal of current taxes until the state runs the fuck out of money and misery reigns. Oh wait, already happened.
18
I hope the money they saved goes in to a fund to stop candy eating the way the tax on cigarettes goes. Otherwise the sin tax umberella has room for my beloved M&Ms. No wonder lovechild is for this
19
But, 14, toilet paper is already taxed. As are paper towels, over-the-counter medications, diapers, toothpaste, and any number of other items much more essential to the average person than candy bars, gum, and soda. Not to mention the taxes on electricity and natural gas (if you don't have money to weatherproof your home or invest in energy-efficient appliances, you spend more, and probably live in an older - or at least less well maintained - home to begin with, I know a number of lower income people with huge energy bills because they can't afford to upgrade) and gasoline (increasingly, poorer people live further away from major job centers, and rural areas, where people travel further to work, are already poorer than cities, and I know that seems odd so here's the stats: http://missourifamilies.org/cfb/briefs/r…) are pretty regressive already. Many states already tax candy and soda, and no one is (seriously) rallying in these states to begin taxing doritos and cinnamon toast crunch.
20
@9: The following are exempt from the state's retail sales tax (see chapter 82.08 RCW): trail grooming services, honey bees, waste vegetable oil, digital codes, audio or video programming, digital product or service ingredients or components made available for free, standard digital information and services purchased for business purposes, casual and isolated sales, sale of copied public records by state and local agencies, sale and distribution of newspapers, sales and distribution of magazines or periodicals by subscription for fund-raising, sales of academic transcripts, sale of the operating property of a public utility to the state or a political subdivision, sales of machinery and equipment for manufacturing, research and development, or a testing operation, sales of tangible personal property incorporated in prototype for parts, auxiliary equipment, and aircraft modification, sales of carbon and similar substances that become an ingredient or component of anodes or cathodes used in producing aluminum for sale, sales of tangible personal property related to a building or structure that is an integral part of a laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory, auction sales of personal property used in farming, sales by a nonprofit organization for fund-raising activities, sales to federal corporations providing aid and relief, sales of livestock, sales of natural or manufactured gas, sales of personal property for use connected with private or common carriers in interstate or foreign commerce, sales of airplanes, locomotives, railroad cars, or watercraft for use in interstate or foreign commerce or outside the territorial waters of the state or airplanes sold to United States government, sales of motor vehicles and trailers for use in transporting persons or property in interstate or foreign commerce, sales of motor vehicles, trailers, or campers to nonresidents for use outside the state, sales to nonresidents of tangible personal property which becomes a component of property of the nonresident by installing, repairing, etc., sales of watercraft to nonresidents for use outside the state, sales of watercraft, vessels to residents of foreign countries, sales of poultry for producing poultry and poultry products for sale, sales of machinery and implements, and related parts and labor, for farming to nonresidents for use outside the state, sales for use in states, territories, and possessions of the United States which are not contiguous to any other state, sales to municipal corporations, the state, and political subdivisions of tangible personal property, labor and services on watershed protection and flood prevention contracts, sales of semen for artificial insemination of livestock, sales to nonresidents of tangible personal property, digital goods, and digital codes for use outside the state, sales of form lumber to person engaged in constructing, repairing, etc., structures for consumers, charges for labor and services or sales of tangible personal property related to agricultural employee housing, sales of and labor and service charges for mining, sorting, crushing, etc., of sand, gravel, and rock from county or city quarry for public road purposes, sales of pollen, sales between political subdivisions resulting from annexation or incorporation, renting or leasing of motor vehicles and trailers to a nonresident for use in the transportation of persons or property across state boundaries, sales to free hospitals, sales to qualifying blood, tissue, or blood and tissue banks, sales of human blood, tissue, organs, bodies, or body parts for medical research and quality control testing, sales to organ procurement organization, sales of prescription drugs, sales of returnable containers for beverages and foods, certain medical items, sales of ferry vessels to the state or local governmental units, sales of passenger motor vehicles as ride-sharing vehicles, vehicle parking charges subject to tax at stadium and exhibition center, lease of certain irrigation equipment, telephone, telecommunications, and ancillary services, sales of amusement and recreation services or personal services by nonprofit youth organization, sales used by health or social welfare organizations for alternative housing for youth in crisis, sales of food and food ingredients, sales of feed for cultivating or raising fish for sale, sales of feed consumed by livestock at a public livestock market, sales of food purchased with food stamps, sales of diesel fuel for use in operating watercraft in commercial deep sea fishing or commercial passenger fishing boat operations outside the state, emergency lodging for homeless persons, sales to artistic or cultural organizations of certain objects acquired for exhibition or presentation, sales of materials and supplies used in packing horticultural products, rentals or sales related to motion picture or video productions, sales of cigarettes by Indian retailers, sales, rental, or lease of used park model trailers, sales of used mobile homes or rental or lease of mobile homes, sales of used floating homes or rental or lease of used floating homes, pollution control facilities, vehicle battery core deposits or credits, vessels sold to nonresidents, nebulizers, ostomic items, personal property used at an aluminum smelter, sale of computer equipment parts and services to printer or publisher, direct mail delivery charges, sales of medical supplies, chemicals, or materials to comprehensive cancer centers, vehicles using clean alternative fuels, air pollution control facilities at a thermal electric generation facility, coal used at coal-fired thermal electric generation facility, property and services related to electrification systems to power heavy duty diesel vehicles, electric vehicle batteries and infrastructure, warehouse and grain elevators and distribution centers material-handling and racking equipment, property and services that enable heavy duty diesel vehicles to operate with onboard electrification systems, sales at camp or conference center by nonprofit organization, sales of gun safes, sales/leasebacks by regional transit authorities, farming equipment hay sheds, conifer seed, replacement parts for qualifying farm machinery and equipment, diesel, biodiesel, and aircraft fuel for farm fuel users, motorcycles for training programs, animal pharmaceuticals, qualifying livestock nutrient management equipment and facilities, anaerobic digesters, propane or natural gas to heat chicken structures, chicken bedding materials, dietary supplements, disposable devices used to deliver prescription drugs for human use, over-the-counter drugs for human use, kidney dialysis devices, steam, electricity, electrical energy, sales of machinery, equipment, vehicles, and services related to biodiesel blend or E85 motor fuel, hog fuel used to generate electricity, steam, heat, or biofuel, forest derived biomass, sales of machinery and equipment used in generating electricity, sales of machinery and equipment using solar energy to generate electricity, semiconductor materials manufacturing, gases and chemicals used in production of semiconductor materials, gases and chemicals used to manufacture semiconductor materials, computer parts and software related to the manufacture of commercial airplanes, labor, services, and personal property related to the manufacture of superefficient airplanes, insulin, import or export commerce, temporary medical housing, weatherization of a residence.
21
9
poor people spend a greater percentage of their income on candy and hense will pay a greater percentage of their income on candy tax than more affluent people.
22
The butterscotch square from Sees is pure heaven!

Candy is taxed in California--so is soda. We're still in a shit-hole deficit...wonder what we can start charging tax on now?
23
It's patriotic to pay your taxes. Those commies at See's hate America/Washington
24
I'd rather they tax candy then educate even fewer Washington citizens, quite frankly.

People who don't like paying taxes when we're fighting two official wars and two unofficial wars are ... unpatriotic.

At best.
25
A fascinating list, @20. Thanks.
26
@13 had to laugh... my thought exactly "has hell just frozen over?".
28
Hey, Dan: If you want to get your sweetie something really nice in the way of chocolate, go to www.RogueChocolatier.com and order a few bars. Best chocolate you'll have ever had.

By the way: The nephew of the Daily Kos diarist is now in school, is posting on DK himself, is working on his college admissions (he's checking out scholarship options, which from what I've heard of his academic record shouldn't be too hard for him to swing), has already been introduced to a twentyish gay couple to show him what a committed couple near to his own age looks like, is going to start seeing a therapist, and has been pretty much adopted by virtually the entire active Daily Kos community. In other words, Auntie's doing a fabulous job and he's going to be all right. Just thought you should know.
29
Even ignoring the fact that candy isn't a staple and therefore is absolutely fine to tax, I don't see where See's, of all candy companies, is the one that feels threatened by this tax. It's not exactly cheap candy anyway; it's something that people splurge on when they're NOT broke. If you're too broke for taxed candy, then you're too broke for See's candy anyway. There's not really a demographic of poor people loading up on the See's chocolate truffles while they're good n' cheap!
30
@19, as you perceived, my tongue was firmly in cheek, but using t.p. as a continuing example, I was suggesting a special tax well above normal sales tax, such that the yield curve is maximized. That is, as you raise the t.p. tax, the total yield statewide initially rises rapidly because most people perceive it as perhaps philosophically annoying but not a deal-breaker. At some point, $5 a roll as a slam-dunk example, sales and tax revenues fall precipitously, and trees within a 30-mile radius are completely defoliated up to about ten feet (or about the height of a human plus an easily-carried ladder).

I agree also on energy issues. In my area, a community-service agency provides free cost-effective home weatherproofing for low-income and senior households: weatherstripping, caulking, plastic membranes over windows inside or out, etc. Heating is still expensive and misery high if you live in a brick house without insulation in walls or ceiling.
31
Oh, and kudos to Dan and Rep. Pedersen for managing to get your (very specific) candy preferences out into the big world under cover of serious fiscal discussion. Well played, sirs!
32
So is my chocolate ladened yogurt going to be taxed as well?

Candy is not a necessity and most of my favorite dark chocolates are not cheap to begin with. Oh, and we the consumers are paying the tax on these candies, right? Please correct me if I am wrong.

I had no idea that See's is not from WA.
33
@32 - you can buy a pound of Belgian dark chocolate at Trader Joe's for $3.99.

That's not expensive.
34
@30, but I thought this was just extending the regular sales tax to candy and the like? http://heraldnet.com/article/20100309/NE… IMHO, that's a horse of a different color from creating a "special" tax on the proposed set of food-like products. Of course you can tax a product out of use, that's exactly what bag taxes and sin taxes above and beyond the regular rate of taxation are meant to do (though that can backfire, hardcore, when you strangle the golden goose), and I'm not sure I would support a special excise tax on things like candy and soda. But applying the regular sales tax that (most) states already apply to everything from TP to designer threads? I'm all for that.
35
Good point, Rob (@31)!
I guess everyone now knows what to drop off for Easter...
36
Whatever you do - don't start making public sector employees finance their own retirements like the rest of us. Much less shoulder the same burden for their health insurance as the average private sector employee! Not. Progressive.

What's truly Progressive is cutting the services that the most vulnerable populations in the state rely on instead of the wages and benefits of the "public servants" who are tasked with delivering them. Thank-god that the poor, the elderly, stray animals, etc, etc, etc, are selfless enough to take it on the chin so that the Document Specialist IV can retire in comfort.
37
@36, while I don't know about Washington state's employee benefits, I used to work for the federal government, and the benefits aren't as generous as you might think. The healthcare plans are approximately the same as those offered to private-sector employees, in fact many of my friends in the private sector had plans nearly identical to mine. They included all the lovely co-pays and deductibles that private-sector employees face. We paid 1/3 of our medical insurance premiums, while my similarly-educated friends in the private sector were able to negotiate 100% premium coverage in their contracts. Dental and vision benefits are 100% employee-paid, it's just that the group size is large enough that the premiums are reasonable. The bulk of my retirement savings were in the TSP, which is basically a 401(k) with just slightly more generous matching contributions than the private sector (100% up to 3%, 50% from 3-5%, and 1% of your salary automatically AFTER your first year). The government does still offer a pension, but that is 20% funded by employee contributions, as well.

Given that I make about 3x what I did for the government as a private-sector worker (can't say employee, I'm somewhere between an independent contractor and a contract employee), I think those benefits are about fair.
38
Interesting that no one's mentioned that See's is actually owned by Berkshire Hathaway. http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/subs/su…

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