Nearly lost in the flood of bills introduced yesterday was a gem from Del. Tom Rust (R). Apparently Tom felt the infamous abuser fees were just too darn popular, progressive, and fair. So he decided to come up with a way for paying for transportation even more outrageous, more regressive, and more unjust -- by raising taxes on food and beverages. BustRust.com says some are already referring to it as "The McDonald’s Tax":
All good citizens of Virginia should ask him a couple of questions:More than a quarter of low-income households don't even own a vehicle. Why does Del. Rust think they should have to pay for road repairs every time they go to Denny's? I mean, you really have to ask, what is Del. Rust thinking?
1. What in the world does taxing food and beverages have to do with transportation? Shouldn’t the entity or item taxed be related to the purpose - you know, like tolls being used for maintaining the highway for which you pay the toll? Why, making someone eating at McDonald’s pay for northern Virginia’s highways would be akin to invading one country to punish them for an attack on the United States by another country ... could that ever happen? Unthinkable.
2. These types of taxes are amongst the most regressive there can be, and causes such confusion as to be, ultimately, ineffective.