Film-Tech Cinema Systems
  Home     Products     Store     Forum     Warehouse     Contact Us    
Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE


  
my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home
  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » Film-Yak   » People really hate Philly's new soda tax (Page 2)

 
This topic comprises 4 pages: 1  2  3  4   
Author Topic: People really hate Philly's new soda tax
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 01-13-2017 01:49 PM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Leo Enticknap
My $0.02 on this is that the founding fathers simply didn't see online retailing coming, or anything like it, and therefore the interstate commerce provisions of the Constitution simply don't enable anything like a fair taxation system to be applied to business that is done by a combination of the Internet (which fundamentally doesn't even recognize national borders, let alone state, county or city ones) and freight shipping.
As of 2014 figures, manufacturing makes up about 8% of the 150 million jobs currently in the US. Yet that's the jobs sector policy makers keep talking about when it comes to improving the nation's economy. Construction is about 4%.

Currently over 80% of America's labor force is made up of "services providing" jobs. That's 120 million jobs. 15 million jobs are in retail and that figure hasn't moved much over the past decade. 14 million jobs are in leisure and hospitality. Such jobs are cousins to the retail sector since store fronts for both are mixed together and depend on each other. A bunch of those jobs can be negatively affected by online merchants.

People like to get out of the house, supposedly. When you visit a city or town that seems to be thriving you see lots of store fronts offering various products and services. Movie theaters certainly fit into this category. Yet there are people promoting the idea of buying anything and everything via the Internet, packaging it into some kind of utopian ideal. I see the concept of not having to leave the house as an ultimately very negative dystopian thing.

Can you imagine just how sad, boring and socially isolated our cities and towns would be if there was no more in-person commerce? If cities just had houses, factories and some offices they wouldn't look "American" anymore. They would look like something out of a cold war, totalitarian state.

quote: Leo Enticknap
IMHO this is a slightly different issue from sin taxation, which, theoretically at least, is not done just to raise revenue for the public purse. Sin taxation doesn't work on its own and never will: the public need convincing that an activity is actually sinful before any public acceptance of curtailing it is going to happen.
Sin taxes don't work well as a revenue generator. If the tax does what it's supposed to do, convince people to buy/use less of a product deemed harmful to a person's health and harmful to society in general, then the tax will bring in less and less money as it becomes more effective in curbing the appetite of that product. In the case of cigarettes, there is still a bigger overall benefit to the taxes. As more smokers quit that lowers the rate of lung cancer, heart disease and other smoking related illnesses, the treatment of which costs taxpayers many billions of dollars every year.

 |  IP: Logged
Timothy Eiler
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 126
From: Litchfield , Minnesota, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

- posted 01-13-2017 02:43 PM      Profile for Timothy Eiler   Author's Homepage   Email Timothy Eiler   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Leo Enticknap
Half of northern California makes short drives across the border into Oregon (zero sales tax) to buy small, portable, high value items, and that's completely legal.
In Minnesota if you do that you have to file a form with the state and pay the required sales tax. Which I'm sure gets a 100% compliance [Wink]

 |  IP: Logged
Justin Hamaker
Film God

Posts: 2253
From: Lakeport, CA USA
Registered: Jan 2004

- posted 01-13-2017 04:04 PM      Profile for Justin Hamaker   Author's Homepage   Email Justin Hamaker   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Leo Enticknap
Two days after this came in, a checkout girl at my local Trader Joe's told me that she'd been reduced to tears by the amount of abuse she'd received as a result of being on the sharp end of that.
The funny thing about this is the law was initially passed a few years ago and put on hold because of lobbying by plastic back makers. Where I live it wasn't a huge shock because many of the North Coast counties have had this law in place for a few years. I live in Lake County where we did not have a local ban, but many locals shop in Mendocino and Sonoma counties where this has been the law for 4-5 years.

 |  IP: Logged
Lyle Romer
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1400
From: Davie, FL, USA
Registered: May 2002

- posted 01-13-2017 09:40 PM      Profile for Lyle Romer   Email Lyle Romer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Timothy Eiler
In Minnesota if you do that you have to file a form with the state and pay the required sales tax. Which I'm sure gets a 100% compliance
I think that same law applies in a lot of places. I know here in Florida, you are supposed to report purchases made over the internet (from sites that don't have to collect it) and send in the sales tax.

The interstate commerce clause doesn't prevent a state from taxing a purchase made across state lines. It prevents the state from compelling an entity that doesn't have a presence in the state from collecting the tax on the state's behalf.

Since the interstate commerce clause doesn't allow a state to do anything to prevent commerce across state lines, they can't prevent goods from being shipped across state lines. However, if the company that does the shipping doesn't do business in the state, they lack the jurisdiction to compel them to collect the tax.

Unfortunately for consumers and fortunately for brick and mortar businesses, Amazon opened distribution centers in Florida a few years ago and therefore they have to collect sales tax on purchases shipped to Florida.

 |  IP: Logged
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 01-14-2017 04:20 PM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Yeah, here in Oklahoma everyone is supposed to enter in what they purchased online during the year on their tax returns. Next to no one actually does this. The law is pretty much a joke. The only way the state is going to get that sales tax revenue is by making merchants collect it at the time of purchase.

Worse yet, even if a taxpayer does do the honest thing and report his online purchases, the state will probably just keep any taxes it collects for itself and not redistribute any of it back to the taxpayer's home town.

 |  IP: Logged
Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

- posted 01-16-2017 03:15 PM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Rick Raskin
I wonder how long it will be before a national value added tax (VAT) is implemented in the US. It seems that with states inability to tax online transactions and the decline in brick and mortar stores, there has to be a way to make up for lost taxation revenue. It would not be difficult to determine each state's portion of VAT funds. Another option is to call the VAT a national sales tax and eliminate local sales taxes altogether.
I couldn't resist Googling "national sales tax constitutional" just now, and discovered a lot of amateur Constitutional scholars (and one or two professional ones) arguing both ways on that one. It seems to hinge on whether the interstate commerce clause only allows federal taxation at the point at which a product is first manufactured or enters the country, or if it can be applied to the final retail sale if the product crosses state lines between those two things happening. About the only takeaway I got from all the online noise is that if any federal administration were to try it, there would be an avalanche of challenges (not least because it stirs up the states' rights hornets' nest) and it would be fought inch by paper-strewn inch all the way to the SCOTUS.

 |  IP: Logged
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 01-16-2017 04:35 PM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
With the tremendous imbalances present between online and retail merchants, I can imagine the entire sales tax system being dismantled nationwide.

Lost sales tax revenues would be replaced by big tax hikes elsewhere, mainly property tax and income tax but possibly taxes on other things as well. If enough brick and mortar retailers are forced out of business and job losses really start piling up across all store front sectors the whole sales tax system will have to be re-examined. Legal challenges over the Interstate Commerce Clause as a means of protecting the tax free status of online purchases will only help dismantle the entire sales tax system.

 |  IP: Logged
Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

- posted 02-27-2017 09:10 AM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Fox News (my emphasis)
Distributors say layoffs coming because of Philly soda tax

Two months into Philadelphia’s 1.5 cents per ounce soda tax, distributors are reporting 30-50 percent declines in sales and saying that hundreds of layoffs are coming.

ShopRite told Philly.com that it will have to lay off 300 workers, while one of the largest distributors said it will have to slash 20 percent of its workforce.

The soda tax comes on top of the existing 8 percent sales tax, adding $2.16 to the cost of 12-pack of soda.

Mayor Jim Kenney said the companies are being greedy for passing the cost of the tax onto consumers instead of reducing their bottom lines.
Mayor Kenney really let the cat out of the bag, didn't he? If the object of his sin tax was to reduce "sinning," then surely he'd be holding a press conference, crowing about what a huge success his tax had been in cutting consumption of unhealthy garbage between a third and a half? Instead he brazenly admitted that the object of the exercise was to transfer money from the soda industry to the city, and that he did not expect consumers to have to pay more.

 |  IP: Logged
Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

- posted 02-27-2017 10:08 AM      Profile for Jim Cassedy   Email Jim Cassedy   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Leo Enticknap
Mayor Kenney really let the cat out of the bag, didn't he?
. . . . Was that a paper, or plastic bag, Leo?

 |  IP: Logged
Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

- posted 02-27-2017 10:14 AM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Doesn't matter - you still have to give the eco hippies their 10c for it!

Plastic would give the kitty more claw-sharpening exercise, though.

 |  IP: Logged
Frank Cox
Film God

Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011

- posted 02-27-2017 10:49 AM      Profile for Frank Cox   Author's Homepage   Email Frank Cox   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
-

 |  IP: Logged
Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

- posted 02-27-2017 10:56 AM      Profile for Jim Cassedy   Email Jim Cassedy   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Leo Enticknap
Mayor Kenney really let the cat out of the bag, didn't he?

-
Apparently, not this cat, and not this bag.

("Albert The Cat" having a great time with an old O.R sack)

 |  IP: Logged
Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

- posted 03-02-2017 09:23 AM      Profile for Jim Cassedy   Email Jim Cassedy   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
The next thing we can expect to get banned is plastic soda straws.

I saw a story on the news last night about a big push to do this
down in Southern California ( oddly enough, I haven't heard or read
anything about it happening here in San Francisco, where such
silliness usually starts) and a bit of quick 'google-ing' revealed that
such bans are already in effect in several American cities.

One article even suggests that if people want to use a straw, they
should carry their own reusable one around in their pockets.

Of course, if drinking straws ever got banned here in San Francisco,
I'm sure you'd be able to file for some sort of health-related exemption
claiming that you are afflicted with some rare condition that requires
you to drink through a straw.

The Dept Of Health would then issue you an exemption certificate to
carry in your wallet, right next to your phony "medical marijuana" [Roll Eyes] card.

 |  IP: Logged
Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

- posted 03-02-2017 10:02 AM      Profile for Bobby Henderson   Email Bobby Henderson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
As far as trash goes, how about those Walmart bags? Those things are blowing all over the landscape. Give it a few years and there will be a big push for people to buy reusable grocery bags.

 |  IP: Logged
Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

- posted 03-02-2017 10:04 AM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Last fall my wife made an impulse buy of a counter top hydroponic herb garden. The first reaction of almost every visitor to the house since then who has laid eyes on the thing has been to ask if we're growing pot in it.

Come to think of it, the invention of high power LED lighting has probably reduced the production cost of the stuff dramatically. In the past, illegal pot growing operations were often busted because they were hacking in to the power grid illegally and stealing a vast amount of electricity to floodlight the stuff. The power company would wonder where the sudden spike in demand was coming from, send guys to investigate, and that's how the pot grow would be discovered.

 |  IP: Logged


All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
This topic comprises 4 pages: 1  2  3  4   
   Close Topic    Move Topic    Delete Topic    next oldest topic   next newest topic
- Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:



Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM 6.3.1.2

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.

© 1999-2020 Film-Tech Cinema Systems, LLC. All rights reserved.