BY RUSSELL TURNER
GOOD INTENTIONS AND THE NANNY STATE
I have heard it said that a politician never sees a tax hike he doesn’t like. Since the most recent session of the state legislature, most Oklahomans are just now realizing all the new fees that we will be facing from now on. Just the other day the new license tag for your autos was unveiled by our governor, I guess we average citizens had better like the new design because we will be paying for it. In addition to the license tag fee increase you will see increases in your cell phone bill, and if you have to file something in the court system you will be paying more for that as well. There are several people complaining about the extra cost, sadly most of them would not listen to the activists that tried to tell them about how their elected officials were voting on these issues. It is a sad fact that too many of our citizens want government to be their nanny, they listen to the same old talking points by the political class and they reelect them. After all of these fees go into effect they may get outraged for a while but it is too late, they have already put the same charlatans back into office and they are stuck with them. We Americans have a bad habit of supporting some of the most insane ideas because someone tells us it is for a good cause, I recently read an article about a tax upon soda pop that illustrates the point very well.
Recently the city of Philadelphia was the first major city in the country to pass a tax on soda. The levy also applies to fruit drinks, sweetened iced tea and juices with less than 50% real fruit. At 1.5 cents-per-ounce, the move adds about $1 to the price of a two-liter soda and more than $2 to a 12-pack. In comparison, the state excise tax on a 12-pack of beer is only 9 cents. According to the mayor of Philadelphia the tax would be used to improve education. While the political class can only see potential dollar signs from a massive new tax they forget one simple fact, most people have cars and the shoppers will simply drive to another town to avoid the soda tax. I have also found that when people drive to another location they will do their other shopping there as well. The small business owners such as convenience store and grocery stores will see a decline in business. Instead of having more money to increase the size of government, they could be seeing a decline in revenues.
Lawmakers who have sought to balance budgets and fund programs with targeted tax hikes have experienced disappointment firsthand. Because soda consumption, like tobacco use, is declining nationwide, a soda tax will soon miss revenue projections — creating future budget shortfalls. We Oklahomans will vote on State Question 779 that would increase the state sales tax in Oklahoma by 22%. If we are foolish enough to pass this question the border counties of our state will start losing revenue to surrounding states. Having a nanny to take care of all of our needs may sound nice, but we better look at the effects it will have on our economy as a whole.
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