why in the hell are the businesses paying for some filthy pigs filthy habits?


I guess therr is no more responsibility. Taxes and gubmint will solve every last one of lifes problems
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www.nctimes.com

Oakland to tax fast food restaurants to pay for litter cleanup

By: JORDAN ROBERTSON - Associated Press

OAKLAND -- Fast-food restaurants here will soon have to pay for their sloppy customers.

The City Council on Tuesday approved a tax that will force some businesses on litter-choked streets to help pay to clean up trash their customers left behind.

But at least one other city has tried and failed to impose a version of the so-called "litter tax," and Oakland city officials said they're ready for a lengthy legal challenge.


"I have no doubt we're going to be sued about this," said Councilwoman Jane Brunner, who proposed the measure. "We've done many other fees in the city that have held up, and we believe that this was written in a way that will also hold up. It doesn't mean we won't be challenged, but we will survive the challenge."

The California Restaurant Association said Wednesday it's considering just that -- filing a lawsuit to keep the tax from taking effect Feb. 22.

"We don't think it sends a good message at all the businesses that are already there in Oakland," said Johnnise Downs, local government affairs director for the association. "They're basically being penalized and targeted just for doing business in the city of Oakland."

Oakland's fee was opposed by the Metropolitan Oakland Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations that said costs will be passed along to customers, including low-income residents and young people who are the biggest consumers of fast food.

Businesses say the city should educate the public and enforce littering laws. Some say they already pay employees to pick up trash in their neighborhoods.

Oakland expects the new measure to raise about $237,000 a year to pay crews to pick up the discarded hamburger wrappers, french fry cartons and paper cups that city officials said have become a major eyesore.

Depending on the size of the business, the fees will range from $231 dollars a year to $2,400 a year, Brunner said.

A similar effort in another city was overturned in court.

Chicago passed a measure in 1999 that sought to impose a half-percent tax on restaurants that serve carryout food, and it sparked a two-year legal battle with the state restaurant association.

The Illinois Restaurant Association and two member restaurants sued, claiming the measure was unconstitutionally vague.

In 2002, an appellate court upheld a lower court's ruling that voided the measure on grounds it taxed some food establishments and not others, and it was too vague, leaving individuals to decide which items were taxable and which weren't.

"It was a fun tax to fight, because it was so unconstitutional and so unfair and so blatant," said Colleen McShane, president of the Chicago-based association. "Now Oakland has a litter tax? Hello. Learn from other people's mistakes."

They businesses won't pay for it.  Lunch prices will go up way more than to cover it.

Another case of passing the buck instead of punishing those who litter. It is so disgusting, I have seen on numerous occasions people simply unwrapping candy bars and without hesitation throw the wrapper on the grown.

It's like San Francisco's proposed tax on shopping bags to pay for the people who litter.

Makes sense, if you're a fucking retard.