Illinois raises sales tax on coffee, candy, tea (bottled Cof.&Tea.)

[ensho]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/73577.html


Beginning Sept. 1, that afternoon candy bar snack is going to cost you more.

Illinois' $31 billion capital bill -- the first to be passed by the state legislature in more than 10 years -- will bring in more revenue for Illinois by way of higher sales taxes on candy, bottled tea and coffee as well as medicated hygiene products.

Metro-east consumers will pay more for these products to help fund roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects across the state. The state is changing the tax rate categories for those products from the lower food sales tax rate of one penny to the higher general merchandise rate.
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seems reasonable

[krispos42]

1. Ah, another regressive tax.

Wonderful.

[SoCalDem]

5. Not necessarily. I would guess that poor people could (and probably DO) make do without

buying those things.

Snack foods would be an excellent place to start with taxes to make up deficits. These are UNNECESSARY "foods".

I'd like to see them go further.. slap some more taxes on liquor & beer (not wine, since wines do seem to have some medicinal value).

No one NEEDS potato chips, candy, beef jerky, bottled iced tea, bottled frou-frou coffees, sodas, etc.

a few cents here and there does add up, and the people who can afford them NOW, can surely afford a few extra cents into the tax kitty.

[MindPilot]

2. As my old roommate used to say:

"There's no tax on food; there's no tax on labor, yet there is a tax on prepared food. How the fuck does that happen?"

Similar thing here: I assume honey, nuts, raw chocolate and sugar are still food items taxed at the lower rate, but add them to together and voila...TAX!

This kind of artificial complexity just fuels the libertarian anti-tax crowd. Either tax things you eat and drink or don't. But don't try to tell me that a candy bar is not food. However repugnant it may be to the clean-living zealots, I can eat it and get some nutritional value from it; it's food.

[ensho]

3. did Ill. ever say these things were not food?

are you jumping to conclusions?

[kestrel91316]

4. If I loved in IL I wouldn't be complaining. I consider all those things luxuries.

[tritsofme]

6. Here in suburban Cook, our general merchandise rate is 10%

It really is getting ridiculous.