CHICAGO -- Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley has proposed, among other taxes, a 10-cent tariff on every bottle sold in the city, reported The Chicago Tribune.
A $1.25 water from a vending machine could soon cost $1.35, said the report, and a 24-pack of Aquafina, advertised for $4.50 at a local grocery chain, would cost $6.90 with the proposed tax, an increase of more than 50%.
The dime-per-bottle tax would add up to a projected $21 million, part of a $293 million package of new taxes, fees and fines proposed by Daley.
The tax would place Chicago squarely in the center of a national debate over the environmental and economic impact of bottled water. The tide appears to be turning on bottled water, a national trend that has spawned a backlash from those who complain that landfills are awash in clear plastic empties. Suddenly, bottled water seems to have fallen to the level of cigarettes and soda popan easy tax target, the report said.
"Money-wise, it's a good idea, and environmentally, it's a good idea," Alderman George Cardenas, who proposed the bottled-water tax in August, told the newspaper.
Representatives of the bottled water industry and of major retailers criticized the tax, according to the report, saying it could force people to turn to less healthy beverages, such as soda.
"It's the wrong tax, because here we are doing everything possible to [prevent] illnesses and obesity, and discouraging people from drinking water through a tax is not the best thing to do for their health and lifestyle," David Vite, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, told the paper.
Vendors will pass the cost of the tax to consumers by raising the price of bottled water purchased at vending machines, Daniel Stein, co-owner of Mark Vend Co., a Northbrook, Ill.-based vending service, told the paper.
The city's tax on soft drinks3% of a distributor's gross sales receipts, or 3 cents for a $1 bottle of soda popis already factored into vending machine prices, Stein said.
Supporters of the tax said it could push people away from bottled water and back to tap water, reducing the amount of resources used to package, ship and dispose of bottled water and its containers.
Most (nearly 37%) of the 182 respondents to a recent Kraft/CSP Daily News poll asking, How much would your bottled-water sales suffer if a 25-cent per bottle tax were enacted in your market? said there would be a small dropoff; more than 25% said there would be a major drop in sales; about 21.5% said it would depend if neighboring markets have a similar tax; and 16.5% said there would be no change.
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