A Stitch in Haste

We all knew it was just a matter of time, right?

Faced with a $300 million budget hole, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is hoping people in this already heavily taxed city won't mind forking over a few extra cents for their Big Macs and Whoppers. He wants to ask Detroit voters to approve a 2 percent fast-food tax -- on top of the 6 percent state sales tax on restaurant meals.

The mayor says consumers will barely notice the extra cents at the cash register, but critics say the tax would unfairly burden the poor and hamper economic development.
...
But the Detroit tax would be the country's first to target fast-food outlets, the National Restaurant Association said. The tax would apply to anything sold at a fast-food restaurant, even salads.

There’s a lively discussion (as usual) in the comments section over at Hit & Run, whence this story came, so just jaunt over there and enjoy.

I have only three hasty stitches:

1. Notice that the proposal does not call for earmarking the tax for anti-obesity programs or to specifically fund health-care costs. It's merely to fund general operations. Call me old-fashioned, but I think general taxes should fund general operations and targeted taxes should fund targeted programs (to the extent such operations and programs are legitimate functions of government to begin with).

2. This is yet another example of why those who presume that sales taxes are unconditionally preferable to income taxes are, quite frankly, naive. First you start with a “flat and fair” sales tax, then suddenly the calls from the would-be central planners begin for exempting this and surcharging that, and the next thing you know the Politics of Pull and the Politics of the Warm Fuzzy Feeling and the Penny in Your Pocket Rule have twisted it into as ugly a monstrosity as the income tax it was meant to replace. I stick to my guns: keep all taxes low and “simplification” will take care of itself.

3. This is also yet another example of how those who believe in unbridled democracy and the evils of “activist judges” and all the rest of the nonsense are, quite frankly, full of it. Is it really so wrong to put more faith in (unelected) Anthony Kennedy than in this (elected) central planner moron?