If you thought our city has gone insane with new fees and existing ones going up the roof (like a $15 hike on a Muni Fast Pass), try this one for size: Would you pay a tax when buying food from a fast food restaurant?
Well, get ready San Francisco, you could be paying taxes for the "pickup" of the fast food trash.
The Department of Public Works wants to tax citizens for the litter on our streets, other than cigarette butts which will have a tax imposed soon for "cleanup," they claim it's the fast food.
In my opinion, I think it's a stupid idea to add additional taxes. We already pay 9.5% sales tax on the food we purchase at any establishment, so why the hell should I pay extra just because some irresponsible person littered their burger wrapper on the ground? If I bought something from a non-fast food joint, so I don't pay the tax?
Doesn't this just seem to just be a way to tell fast food establishments that they are not welcomed in our city? We don't welcome big box retailers in our city, and that plastic bag ban doesn't help too; so they spend their time opening up shop down in Daly City and Colma where the local government welcomes them with open arms, and also snatches taxpayer money from San Francisco citizens who decides it's better down south than in our city.
So what is the definition of a "fast food" chain that would be taxed? Could Costco's food court be in the same category as McDonald's, Burger King, and Carl's Jr.? How about Noah's Bagels? They serve their stuff fast and have multiple locations in the city.
OK, the city is poor. Do what you should be doing city government clowns, chase down those who didn't pay their property taxes, have multiple parking tickets, and start making your employees drink tap water instead of that bottled crap. And while you get a chance, why not take a bigger pay cut?
Hell, I'm doing all my business in Daly City. My office is just a few minutes away from the border.
Akit,
ReplyDeleteI'm usually opposed to taxes myself, feeling that I pay more than my fair share, but this is one that I could get behind.
I just saw a car at Hayes and Divisadero open their car door and dump out their trash from the nearby Popeye's. They drove away before anybody could say anything to them. Looking around the gutter in that area, it's only Popeye's trash. No other corner in NoPa has that large of a trash problem. Extrapolating this out, I'm thinking that if there wasn't a Popeye's there, the trash would go away as well.
The thing with that trash in the street is that Popeye's is not the one that cleans it up, it's the city of San Francisco. Popeye's has sold their food and as a chain they don't have a strong tie to the neighborhood as say a Little Star or Little Chihuahua. Popeye's, compared to all the other restaurants in NoPa and the Lower Haight, is directly more of a tax burden on the city than all the surrounding restaurants due to the extra maintenance just to keep their trash off the streets.
A tax on these fast food companies, known for their take-out packaging, would put the burden of getting their customers to throw their trash away back on them. Hell, give the customers a nickel per box they bring back. For the customers that want to reduce the impact of the tax, they get their money and even if they decide to throw it in the gutter, I guarantee someone will come by and pick it up for them.
Nolan