NANNY-STATE WATCH

NY legislators need to "protect people from themselves"

Alan S. Chartock, president and CEO of WAMC radio in upstate New York, has a column in the Troy Record, "Legislature should tax soda." Chartock sees the tax as a way to close New York's widening budget gap, and have some constructive social engineering. He writes:

We know that obesity is rampant in this country and sugar use by Americans is off the charts. But we don’t tax sugar-laden soda, even though our heath commissioner tells us that this is the time to do just that... The unpopular (but often right) Gov. David Paterson is in favor of the tax on soft drinks.

Chartock then admits that the working class will be hit the hardest, precisely the targetted constituency of the Democrat Party.

Continuing:

There is a current libertarian streak running through this country. People know that every time you put a tax on a popular product like soda, the little people are expected to pay more than their share. The economists call this a regressive tax and it is. Health Commissioner Richard Daines is wildly in favor of the tax. He feels that it will save lives and believes that just as the tax on cigarettes has helped cut down on the consumption of that killer product, the same thing will happen when taxes drive the price of a soda up.

This is a budget crisis year and people distrust the Legislature. As our law-makers look for ways to protect people from themselves, they may want to think about doing the right thing.