Not being able to afford to eat at restaurants that don’t have a dollar menu may become a sin in NJ, says the Associated Press. Jon Corzine, the governor of a state in which gambling is legal, is considering a suggestion to levy a “sin tax” on fast food in order to help save NJ’s underfunded hospitals.
From the AP:
New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine said Tuesday he’s open to using a “sin tax” to help provide funding for struggling hospitals.
His comments came after Amy Mansue, of Children’s Specialized Hospital, suggested a fast food tax during a meeting between Corzine and hospital leaders on proposed state hospital and health care aid cuts.
Corzine called it “a constructive suggestion.”
“We would be happy to examine that and debate that with the Legislature,” Corzine said.
But Senate President Richard J. Codey said he wouldn’t favor a fast food tax.
“That’s a tax on poorer people and people with kids,” said Codey, D-Essex.
Detroit weighed a 2 percent tax on sales at fast-food establishments in 2005, but the plan didn’t become law.
What do you think? Can cheap, unhealthy food be a “sin” like cigarettes or liquor? And if so, whose sin is it?
A fast food tax to help NJ hospitals? Corzine open to idea [NJ] (Thanks, Andrew!)
(Photo:Morton Fox)
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I support this if and only if it gets passed with a sister “Stupidity tax”.
easier to tax fat people. No sense in punishing the rest of us who exercise and burn off what we eat.
Sarcasm aside, keep sin taxes on real sins….gambling, drinking, toxic polluters, and illegal drugs.
They should only tax it if you do something unnatural or disturbing with the burger
I say it absolutely can be a sin. This is not a tax on the poor or people with kids, it is a tax on the LAZY. With a little forethought and effort, one can eat way better off of food they buy and prepare themselves than fast food. Anything that encourages people to do so is a good thing.
I know this is nutritionally incorrect, but those cheeseburgers look AMAZING.
My lunch: Can of Slim-Fast, a hardboiled egg, and an apple. Yum. 8-P
The tax should be : running a mile for each burger eaten :O
The only problem I see with this is that the line drawn on where the sin tax should be imposed can be easily moved were this to come to pass. For instance, if burgers fall under the sin tax, what about frozen ones in the supermarket? And what about raw chopped meat?
Same thing with fries. Fries are taxable, so then what about oils? And potatoes?
It’s a bit early to worry about a “slippery slope,” but how does the law define unhealthy foods against neutral foods that simply could be prepared in an unhealthy manner?
Isn’t a single hamburger without sauce healthier than a calorie laden fun burger at Cheesecake Factory?
It’s misdirected. Sin tax should go to any restaurant food that contains more than xx calories per unit of xx.
@ElizabethD: Replace Slim Fast by Clif Bar. There the only bar that tastes good.
how about putting medical costs on a diet?
Why should government be telling you it’s a sin to eat fast food and then charge you more to do so? The whole principal of the matter is an outrage. Can you see our rights disappearing?
Need to stand up against this before it becomes the snow ball effect.
If they need money for hospitals, fine, put it on the ballot, raise sales tax .001% and done. But a sin tax? Wow.
sin tax error.
And those burgers look soo tasty.
@Glamdering:
Stupidity tax #1: Being the governor of N.J. & driving 100MPH without a seatbelt!
Let’s tax electronic devices (TVs, iPods, air conditioners, etc.) and other luxury type goods while were at it. We can call it an “affluence tax”.
How about a sin tax on sodas with HFCS? Drinks like Capri Sun would also be included.
Also a sin tax on alcohol is stupid. Studies show drinking in moderation, perhaps 1-2 to drinks daily, is good for a number of things. Not really the point, the government doesn’t have the constitutional right to tell you what is bad for you.
I need to take a breather, this has me out of control.
Corzine is the worst governor ever. At least McGreevey got the DMVs to work right. Corzine’s proudest achievement is eliminating the death penalty. By doing that, guess whose life he saved? Jessie Timmendequas. Who’s that, you ask? He’s the guy who killed Megan “‘s Law” Kanka.
Good job, Corzine. Jerk.
Fine, then tax all restaurants that serve anything other than salads. Fast food isn’t the only unhealthy food out there, it’s just the only unhealthy food that everyone can afford.
Well that Senate President is smart for opposing this. His reasoning that only the poor and people with kids eat fast food is pretty retarded. I work at a small company and we have some people here who are probably in the top 1% who come in with Sonic all the time.
@workingonyourinvoice: “Sin tax error” — love it!
And to Victo: I can’t stand ANY of those so-called protein bars. Bleah. At least the canned shakes are palatable and fill me up.
What the heck? I support more taxation, only if it means something huge will done with the money.
Time and time again, the NJ Government considers adding more and more taxes in order to save its behind. Just WHAT are they doing with the taxpayers money?
Why don’t they tax “too much television,” since that can be potentially harmful to you, and therefore a “sin.”
Eating fast food is not a sin.
St. Peter: “Nope, sorry, it was that double whopper last week that did you in.” [pulls lever]
@Bladefist: I would have to agree with that. Where I work pretty much everyone just goes off to eat fast food on their breaks. Making a generalizing statement like that just makes him come off as an elitest.
I’m torn here. As a smoker, I’ve noticed many people get awful freaking giddy when tax on cigarettes goes up, and talk about how wonderful it is. I’m all for sharing the tax magic, and can’t wait to see how this plays out and folks react. It won’t be half as cool until 50+% of the fast food purchase price is tax though. (Damn you, NY state).
As a parent, I dig this. I see so many other parents shoveling fast food and prepackaged crap in their kids like it’s going out of style. I’m not talking about ‘treats’ or ‘moderation’, and hell, I’m not even talking about those I’d define as ‘poor’. If you’re going to put your child on the path to obesity and health problems, you should be held accountable. Maybe this will make some people think and change their habits.
Not that everybody who eats fast food needs to change their habits.
On the other hand, I think taxes like this are really stupid, you can’t rely on the income there, and where do you draw the line? It’s high time governments learned financial responsibility & constraint, and stopped having to up taxes on everything, or create new taxes later on.
Poorer people can get food stamps if they need them — and the $$ spent of food stamps is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the $$ spent on health care as obesity, diabetes and the like continue to rise. :T
Because nothing says good government like new taxes and more spending, whoppee!
@Angryrider: You support new taxes? How about we stop using the existing ones to fund total garbage. More taxation, the single worst thing to support if you’re a citizen, can I have some seeds from your money tree?
Here in California we’re already paying almost 9% in sales taxes; any more will probably have a revolt from the people.
And we already pay sales tax on prepared food here.
Sin taxes never work – they are only a tax on a minority masked by a facade of morality. And those who support them are usually so ignorant that they don’t even realize their own facism.
Intelligent fiscal policy would dictate raising funds elsewhere through a more universal and democratically applied tax, but unfortunately political fiscal policy dictates raising funds through lop-sided sin taxes that will upset the least amount of voters…
@ironchef: btw, sin taxes on illegal drugs…mind explaining exactly how that works?
NJ is becoming more and more uninhabitable, especially with the current government. For years, we heard nothing but “all is rosy” until Corzine got into office and then we hear we’re on the brink of financial disaster and the only solution is to jack up our already unreal taxes. The first thing he did was to jack up our sales tax. Now he wants to levy a special tax on pizza and burgers?
People are fleeing the state (I call Charlotte, NC “New New Jersey” as I know so many people moving either there or Atlanta). The cost of living here is unbelievable, and what do you get for it? Being able to take a bus/train to Manhattan? Trips on the crowded Garden State Parkway to the NJ shore? BIG DEAL. Businesses, I’m sure, will be soon to follow, and then where will all the money come from?
Way to go, Corzine/NJ voters. Decades of corruption have finally caught up with us.
Xay has the right of it.
Honestly …. expand that to cover all restaurants, and I’d be on board.
I see no reason to only burden those people who abuse their bodies through the cheapest means with this tax.
If they want to target unhealthy food as a “sin” then they better widen their sights. Was it Chillies that had the cheese covered French fries APPETIZER that were like 6 THOUSAND calories? Yeah get them too!
(I cannot remember the actual count but it was in the thousands of calories, and made my jaw DROP)
Er. Isn’t taxing sins merging church and state? Does that mean if you’re paying the tax you’re paying for an um… indulgence?
Where’s my tax break for eating healthy? Extra refunds for people who can do 40 sit-ups? The whole thing is invasive and lame.
@ElizabethD: AMEN
I have a problem with any ‘sin’ tax including this. When did it become the governments responsibility to regulate what they think is best for us.
I’ll do what I damn well please thank you very much.
@Victo: only if those miles are at Bannister 3:45 clip. You’ll need a lot more to burn that crap off.
but they look so tasty.
@unravel:
It also doesn’t help that most of the food stamps only get you some of the worst food for you, making the diabetes worse.
Here in New Jersey, perhaps we should tax SUVs. They make up at least 40% of vehicles around here, and perhaps even higher in the more affluent areas.
Corzine’s answer to everything is More Money From People (his favorite is higher tolls)…but he conveniently never comes to the conclusion “More Money from Rich People” which New Jersey has in spades. Corzine included.
A tax on luxury autos, ginormous houses, and luxury goods over a certain dollar amount would take a big bite out of the NJ budget crisis.
And yeah, those burgers look obscenely tasty.
The concept of a sin tax is rather flawed, usually it is levied on something “bad” for you with the idea being the increased cost will reduce your use of the item being taxed. But wait, if that worked then less would be sold so the taxes collected would go down and we’d have to find something else to tax… Rinse. Repeat. In reality people just eat the cost and the marginal decrease in demand is minimal. So as a behavior tool its terrible, and as a tax instrument it punishes people for behavior the government has no business interfering with.
This won’t change people’s fast food buying habits, not unless the tax becomes a huge portion of the cost, in which case you’re back to the self defeating scenario.
How many hospital board members are paid on the order of millions a year? It could be none, maybe they all hold positions philanthropically. If so, great! But if there are people earning millions then halve those salaries and there’s a huge cost saving right there. Could those board members honestly argue their need to buy *another* house trumps the lives of the children they’re supposed to be saving? Again, I have no idea what they earn, but any inflated executive salaries would be in my first round of cuts.
I can just see it, Big Mac,$80.00 a Big Mac Carton.
@ironchef:
I’m sorry that your deity won’t let you gamble or drink but that’s hardly a reason to ruin it for others. Besides, there’s a whole boatload of money to be made from legalizing marijuana and taxing it just like the gubment does tobacco.
@Bladefist:
1794 called they want their crazy political arguments back.
[en.wikipedia.org]
How about a sin tax on condoms? Or hotel rooms by the hour?
Or how about TAXING THE CHURCH? They forgive sins and collect tithe, so why shouldn’t they pay that money forward to organizations that can use it – like hospitals and schools??
@NightSteel: You’re a jerk. People can choose to eat whatever they want. It isn’t for you to determine how they should spend their time or how to construct a diet.
This isn’t really a ‘sin’ tax per se, it has nothing to do with religion.
This is a tax on unhealthy foods. It should be a prepared foods tax if they want to go that route.
I like the idea but oppose where the funding is to go.
The purpose of a tax like this is to increase the funding for hospitals and decrease the eating of unhealthy foods.
Thus if people stop eating fast foods hospitals go unfunded. Considering the majority of health issues are not directly related to fast food this is a bad tax.
@Bladefist:
i hate this nanny state in which we live…
BRAV-O!!! Last year Corzine not only increased the sales tax, but also applied the sales tax to things that had not been taxed before. One such thing was gym memberships.
Here I am, trying to stay healthy and I’m being taxed for it…to help pay for the poor health of some crapper busting fatty who mainlines McD’s shakes. It only seems fair that one of the root causes of obesity and health problems (which result in greater strain on my state budget) help defray the costs for the problems that they help create.
@Kat@Work: Just so you can get off your crazy horse, the word ‘sin’ has been appropriated for secular use for quite a long time.
This issue has absolutly nothing to do with religion.
As a side note many churches and charities are run or supported by churches of various faiths and denominations. If you’ve ever gone to a salvation army or a church of any kind of ‘our lady’ you are witnessing religion addressing social concerns.
@Kat@Work:
Don’t get me started on churches.
They skip out on taxes almost entirely. They pay ZERO property tax and yet they still tap into the city for services like the fire dept and police just like everyone.
Time for some tax fairness. No free rides for religions.
@Techguy1138: Whoops I meant to say hospital, not church. Well, I hope the point got out.
Once we have 100% government-funded health care, we will be longing for the good old days of Burger Taxes. Because by then we will have the Excessive Caloric Intake Tax, the Bad Fats Tax, the Neglect of Exercise Tax, the Minium Sleep Guidelines Compliance Tax, the Egg Tax That Comes and Goes Every Six Months Depending on the Latest Study, and of course the widely acclaimed Intake of Nutrients at Sub-Optimal Ratios Tax, brought to you by the latest in Scientific Research.
@WingZero987: What about when I end up getting taxed even more due to the unhealthy habits of others? Shouldn’t I have a say then?
Some land monster doens’t want to be taxed for his Big Mac? Fine…just don’t come running for public dollars when you have hit the limit on your health insurance and need more medical care because “I’m not the boss of you and can’t tell you how to eat!”
@Techguy1138:
I’m crazy why? Get off your high horse.
I was using the word ‘sin’ as a way to connect this issue to the fact that churches do not pay taxes. See the connection? No really, its clever. I don’t care if they do charity work – they don’t pay taxes, and if there really was a separation of church and state they would.
My point is that we are taxed instead of them, and that’s wrong.
@ironchef:
Thank you – I agree 100%