News
Beverage Industry Initiative to Repeal Soda and Other "7-11" Taxes Turns In Signatures
I-1107, the initiative that would repeal taxes on soda, bottled water, gum and candy ("food" taxes, as the campaign calls them) turned in 400,000 signatures today. (Initiatives need 241,000 valid signatures and the Secretary of State thinks you should turn in more than 300,000 to play it safe.)
The legislature passed $100 million in temporary tax increases to help patch the $2.8 billion shortfall during the last year of the 2009-2011 budget biennium. (Altogether, the legislature raised about $755 million in new revenue and made about $4 billion in cuts to deal with the shortfall. The other revenue came from beer taxes, a temporary B&O tax increase, and the elimination of a few tax loopholes.)
The repeal campaign has been funded entirely by the American Beverage Association, which is on a mission to stop any pop tax in its tracks as state legislatures nationwide grapple with collapsing budgets. The ABA's spending on federal and state lobbying increased 37 times to $5.4 million over last year's first quarter) The ABA has contributed $2.4 million to I-1107 so far—as they pledged they would.
We weren't able to make I-1107's press conference at the 4th and Denny Way 7-11, but the PI has a report .
(Full disclosure: Sandeep Kaushik, who co-founded PubliCola in January 2009, is the spokesperson for the anti-I-1107 campaign. Kaushik has no editorial role at PubliCola.)
The legislature passed $100 million in temporary tax increases to help patch the $2.8 billion shortfall during the last year of the 2009-2011 budget biennium. (Altogether, the legislature raised about $755 million in new revenue and made about $4 billion in cuts to deal with the shortfall. The other revenue came from beer taxes, a temporary B&O tax increase, and the elimination of a few tax loopholes.)
The repeal campaign has been funded entirely by the American Beverage Association, which is on a mission to stop any pop tax in its tracks as state legislatures nationwide grapple with collapsing budgets. The ABA's spending on federal and state lobbying increased 37 times to $5.4 million over last year's first quarter) The ABA has contributed $2.4 million to I-1107 so far—as they pledged they would.
We weren't able to make I-1107's press conference at the 4th and Denny Way 7-11, but the PI has a report .
Robin Pavlish, a market manager for 7-Eleven and and vice president of government affairs for the Washington Retail Association, said previous tax hikes on cigarettes hurt 7-11 and he fears the new levies will cause more damage.
"Our sales are down, our franchisees net income is down, in part because of the recession but in part because of these new taxes," Pavlish said. "Here's what we're seeing...we're seeing customers at the end of the month, they're literally bringing in cans of coins, they're brining in their piggy banks to pay for things like this....We don't think raising taxes on the people who can least afford it is the right way to balance the budget."
(Full disclosure: Sandeep Kaushik, who co-founded PubliCola in January 2009, is the spokesperson for the anti-I-1107 campaign. Kaushik has no editorial role at PubliCola.)
