San Francisco And A Fast Food Tax

Staples of the American diet– and leading contributors to pollution in the City by the Bay,  says Dept. of Public Works director Ed Reiskin. “Most people are kind of eating on their way out, or as they walk down the street and unfortunately, the wrappings don’t always get into a proper receptacle.” Read more: http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/07/30/sf-burger-trah-tax/#ixzz0vD9P5aRf

An audit of San Francisco’s litter found fast food wrappers, cups, straws, and napkins are the second most identifiable source of trash on city streets– right behind cigarette butts. To combat that problem, City Hall slapped a .20 cent user fee on each pack of smokes sold in the city — a move that’s expected to help raise more than $2-million. “The money that’s come in has basically offset general fund expenditures, so we’re relying less on the taxpayers and more on cigarette purchasers to basically fund our clean up,” says Reiskin.

Left-leaning San Francisco has a history of passing rules that crack down on politically incorrect behavior. Along with the cigarette fee, San Francisco has banned styrofoam cups and plastic grocery bags, and a litter fee program in Oakland is raising more than $300-thousand a year. All of which makes it likely a “burger trash tax” is something residents here are going to have to learn to swallow.

Read more: http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/07/30/sf-burger-trah-tax/#ixzz0vD9T27aa

For the record it cost the City of San Francisco $7, 487, 916 to pick up cigarette butt litter.

Of course all the fast food restaurants are fighting this voicing concerns that the poor will not be able to afford, its’ not their problem that people litter….

Here is the rebuttal: (And I go to San Francisco quite a bit) Litter is everywhere and it costs San Francisco $4 Million Dollars a Year in Illegal Dumping and $35.8 Million A Year to Pick Up Litter

#1) Fast food places are expensive, what is 20 more cents going to do?

#2) It is not fair to target just fast food restaurants, you have to tax everyone who takes out food, includes liquor stores, mini=marts, and restaurants with takeout.

#3) Fast Food restaurants should make it easy to throw trash in the cans.

Regarding the rebuttal about healthier eating:

• You cannot control what people eat.

Litter is expensive to pick up and clean up:

1. I would put signs up on streets and the parks: It cost Taxpayers $50,000 to pick up this park,
2. I would start a taxpayer cost of litter, fast food, cigarette butts and illegal dumping campaign, nothing hurst more when you know how much each person is paying for it.
3. Have police ticket and ticket and ticket, raise the fines for littering.
4. Each block with any restaurant or store selling food has to do a litter pickup everyday. Each block is responsible for their own litter
5. Next, there definitely needs to be more trashcans in San Francisco. I would put the price of trash on each can.

I know this as a person who picks up trash, Fast Food wrapping is after cigarette butts and there is no excuse for people throwing out litter.

Resources:

San Francisco Litter Audit 2008

Tobacco Litter Report- San Francisco