Seattle to waste $500K to ignore soda tax study

The nonsensical soda tax goes into effect in Seattle on Jan. 1. Distributors who have to pay the tax of 1.75 cents per fluid ounce will pass on the additional cost to consumers.

The tax dollars are meant to fund educational programs for low-income communities, the same communities that will be hit hardest by the tax. And if it gets them to stop drinking soda, it means there’s no money for the programs.

It’s designed to fail. What an awesome idea, right?

Rantz: Seattle minimum wage study appears insanely biased

But what’s more maddening is the city is reportedly spending $500,000 to fund a UW study to look into the impacts of the soda tax on, in part, businesses, because the business community has stated this is bad for them.

This is yet another pricey study that the City of Seattle is funding and will certainly ignore if it doesn’t deliver the results they want. There’s no reason to think otherwise.

We need just revisit the minimum wage study by UW which showed negative effects of the wage increase. The study didn’t say what then-Mayor Ed Murray wanted, so he commissioned another study by activist academics who — remarkably — always seem to come out with studies showing the positive impacts of the minimum wage. According to emails, as first reported by Seattle Weekly reporter Daniel Person, the release of their study was coordinated to overshadow the UW study.

Why are we spending $500,000 on a study the council will totally ignore if it comes back with data they don’t like? Why not just save the money or invest it in the educational programs to help low-income students?

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