Are the number posted yet for first couple of months of sales after this tax yet?

Preckwinkle: Soda tax was all about money, and the county needs it
Andy Grimm

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Wednesday refused to forecast the outcome of a vote next week that would roll back the a controversial “soda tax,” or whether she would veto a repeal if one passes.

But a day ahead of making her budget address to a Board of Commissioners said to be lined up for a close vote on pulling back the county’s penny-per-ounce tax on sodas and sweetened beverages, Preckwinkle was not shy about saying what would happen without the estimated $200 million in tax revenue projected to come from the tax.

“(We will) make significant cuts to public health and public safety, because that’s where 87 percent of our money goes,” Preckwinkle told reporters, following an unrelated press conference on criminal justice reform.

Preckwinkle will release her budget at 10 a.m. Thursday, an hour before her formal budget address. The county board could vote on repealing the tax on Tuesday.

Preckwinkle has traditionally given her budget address in October, but this year’s budget rollout comes the week before a vote on repealing the tax is set to come before the county board.

The tax narrowly passed last year with the president casting a tie-breaking vote. Furor over the tax, stoked in part by a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign by soda industry groups, reached a fever pitch this summer, when consumers around the county first saw the beverage tax tacked onto their grocery receipts.

Preckwinkle reminded commissioners of the financial implications for the county if the tax is pulled back in a fiscal note sent out Friday, which said the county health system and public safety funds, which were slated to receive 75 percent of the new soda tax revenue. The lost revenue would require an 11-percent cut to those departments’ budget, according to the memo.

The cuts are in line with those Preckwinkle demanded this summer, when soda tax revenues were briefly choked off by a beverage industry lawsuit. Those cuts were largely reversed when a judge lifted an injunction on tax receipts, though some non-union workers did not get their jobs back.

Wednesday, Preckwinkle also was clear that, despite an advertising campaign pushing the health benefits of drinking fewer sugary beverages, the tax was always intended as a way to put more money into county coffers without even less-popular options such as raising sales tax across the board or hiking property taxes.

“We chose as a revenue generator a sweetened beverage tax, which had been enacted around the country, both for the revenue and for the health benefits,” she said. “But first and foremost, for the revenue.”

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At least Roti asked me today if I was buying soda or iced with my foutain drink. Saved me the beverage tax.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

GONE IN DUE TIME!

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Congrats sugar addicts!

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

You can pry my diabetes from my cold dead stumps.

Fuck you Precwinkle. We win!

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There should be a $100 federal tax on all weapon sales, and a $0.05 tax on each bullet.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

That could make a lot of money. At the same time we could charge $5 per vote as well.

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Elections have consequences.

What?

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If you can tax one constitutional right then you can tax another.

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Elections have consequences.

Cook County already has a 5 cent per bullet tax. That's why I don't buy my ammo at Cabelas in Hoffman Estates anymore. GAT Guns in Dundee gets all my business now. Cook County doing its part in continuing to drive out more business to the suburbs and beyond.

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Is this a bit?

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Are you a bit?

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I'm a bit confused that someone who claims to be a scientist can be this retarded.

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Ok. While an outrageous analogy you cannot see any similarity in using a tax to discourage people from enjoying their second amendment rights and using a tax to discourage people to vote? Have a nice weekend.

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Elections have consequences.

Its not rocket surgery.

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One tax is completely illegal and has been banned for decades now, and the other would be a legal sales tax.

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Except he was arguing for a national tax. There is no general national sales tax. You start taxing bullets, you might as well start taxing everything else. See how that flies. Sales tax is already regressive enough.

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Not only the national sales tax really. IMU is being clever and he would want to tax it enough to control arms. A nickel might not do it but put 100% taxes on guns and ammo and you will be in front of the SCOTUS pretty quick.

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Elections have consequences.

High taxes are not unconstitutional. It would probably be political suicide for anyone who voted for it though, but not illegal.

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Yes, I like sugar BR. Doesn't mean I should be taxed on it. You know what I also like; Pissing and shitting in a toilet and not having to go outside. Should I be taxed on that as well? A walk outside could do me some good, help me work off some of that sugar I consumed for the day.

Love, sitting on my couch watching the Cubs at night with a big gulp and a pizza. Should they track the time I am sitting on my couch watching TV? They already want me to buy a god dam watch that chirps at me to get the fuck off my ass, might as well connect that to the IRS and tax my ass sitting time.

Masturbation, Sleep, dog walking, tax that shit too! If you're masturbating your not trying hard enough? You can sleep when your dead and don't walk, run with the fucking dog you lazy bastard!

Fuck them and fuck you sons a bitches that support this crap! I hope you choke on your natural spring water, while eating a veggie burger at the local wifi hotspot cafe, you politically correct assholes!

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Per tug.

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Hopefully it's not retroactive. I would probably owe the government like a billion dollars, give or take.

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Don't worry. You can now drink all the sugar water you want for 1 cent less an ounce! Things are going great.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Great, I am going to go home, walk the dog, watch the cubs game, sit on my toilet with a Pepsi in one hand and my dick in another while I masturbate before I go to sleep. AMERICA FUCK YEAH!

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This thread has taken a turn for the better.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

They have the votes

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... story.html

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Was there ever a Suge Tax?

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Tobolski, my guy!