Desperate for revenue, Detroit ponders fast-food tax

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DETROIT The Detroit city treasury would like a bite of the profits from fast-food meals.

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is hoping people won't mind forking over a few extra cents for their Big Macs and Whoppers.

Kilpatrick is preparing to ask Detroit voters to approve a two-percent fast-food tax -- on top of the six-percent state sales tax already applied to restaurant meals.

The mayor says consumers will barely notice the slight increase at the cash register. But critics of the plan say the tax would unfairly burden the poor and hamper economic development in the city.


http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?S=3315172

[sws4420]

I say good. It seems that a lot of public revenue can be drummed up by imposing these taxes on the vices of the public. Take cigarettes, for instance. The taxes imposed by NYS on cigarettes partially fund the Child Health Plus program. Now if for some reason people stopped smoking tomorrow altogether, that program's funding would be dramatically lowered. I think the fatty tax is a decent idea because the cities can make some money off these people as they clog their arteries up.