Don’t increase soft drink tax
Why is it that many liberals’ answer to virtually any challenge in government is higher taxes?
Revenue to fund government lagging? Raise taxes. Never mind that budget shortfalls often indicate constituents are having their own financial problems.
Some social need, perhaps involving health, on officials’ minds? Raise taxes. That will provide money government can use to do something, or at least appear to be doing so. Never mind that every dollar taken out of taxpayers’ pockets is one less they can spend on their own priorities.
Money is in relatively short supply in Charleston. West Virginia’s general fund budget has been difficult to balance for the past couple of years. Less than a month into the fiscal year, revenue already is lagging severely behind estimates on which the budget was based.
Legislators and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin already have increased taxes on tobacco products. Not enough, says the liberal West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.
A center researcher suggested this week that West Virginia should increase its tax on soft drinks. That would raise millions of dollars in new revenue while discouraging Mountain State residents from consuming the sugary drinks, the center contends.
West Virginia’s existing exise tax is a penny on soft drinks of 16.9 ounces or less, with another penny added for bigger ones. Some cities have soft drink taxes as high as 1 cent or even 1.5 cents per ounce.
A higher Mountain State tax of as much as a penny per ounce could be a good thing, the center’s researcher said this week.
For state agencies averse to spending discipline, it certainly would be a good thing. For West Virginians struggling to make ends meet, not so much.
Government already takes a big enough gulp out of our hard-earned family budgets.
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