Opinions anyone? Since no one is forced to eat fast food is it really a disproportionate tax? aren't there health benefits for eating less fast food, anyway?
Detroit's Mayor Kilpatrick Wants City to Tax Fast Food
Date: Sunday, May 08, 2005
By: Sarah Karush, Associated Press
Would you like fries with that? Either way, the Detroit city treasury would like a bite. 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.
Kilpatrick wants to ask Detroit voters to approve a two percent fast-food tax -- on top of the six 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.
"Just tell him we're going to go to Bloomfield Hills to McDonald's if he puts a tax on it," said 18-year-old Ebony Ellis, referring to an affluent Detroit suburb, as she and four friends ate at a Golden Arches in Detroit. The high school classmates eat at McDonald's every day after school because their schedule doesn't leave them time for lunch.
read story at
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site....ews/detroit509