Littering Tax in California

Breitbart/AP

The government's quest for utopia, tax dollars and freedom from personal responsibility are all on the table in one of Oakland California's latest city proposals. The city's proposed ordinance would add a tax to be charged to take out food establishments with the funds being earmarked for trash removal crews.

Elected leaders in the city of Oakland have backed a proposal to make take-out food businesses ranging from convenience stores to major hamburger chains such as McDonald's pay for public works crews to clean streets.

"We're just asking them to be good neighbors," said Jane Brunner, the city council member who crafted the ordinance.

The ordinance, which is expected to be finalized by summer, would create a three-tier fee structure based on the revenues of the businesses.

About three quarters of the city's take-out food shops are small, and would wind up paying about 60 cents (US) daily in litter fees, according to Brunner's office.

Major fast food restaurants would wind up paying an estimated 2,400 dollars (US) annually in litter fees.

The proposal includes a promise that police would do "litter stings" to catch trash tossers.

City officials are also to conduct anti-litter seminars at public schools, because they say that students leaving campus for lunch and then throwing wrappers aside carelessly on the way back to class is a major problem.

I guess I don't know why it wouldn't make more sense for people to be fined for throwing out trash. A thousand dollar fee for throwing out a Big Mac box would make littering behavior cost prohibitive and it would also be punishing the idiot rather than the majority of folks that use the trash receptacle.

This is one of those programs that will be difficult to stop once it is started. As with all targeted taxes, it will become an expected revenue stream for the city even if all littering is completely eliminated through the city sponsored anti-littering seminars.

Onward march the socialists in the People's Republic of California.

(h/t Right Nation.)