We Have A Hole In The City Budget -- Let's Plug It With Water.

MayorBob.

Posted to Politics on Wed Aug 15, 2007 at 09:20:25 PM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

When you're working out in a gym, jogging around outside, or just need to wet your whistle at work, there's nothing like a nice, cool drink of water.  Water - it's healthy, refreshing and thanks to the bottled water industry it can be there no matter what you're doing.  But that healthy, refreshing and available bottle of water is about to have war declared on it by a Chicago politician.  Because, "there's a cost associated with this behavior" Chicago Alderman George Cardenas is ready to apply that cost to each bottle of water sold in the Windy City.  Cardenas' notion of what is right and fair regarding bottled water have a lot of people thinking he's all wet.

The increasing consumption of bottled water by Chicagoans has led to a decrease in amount of city water.  This has, in turn, led to a decrease in the amount of water that gets flushed and recycled through the city sewer system.  One of the ways the city raises taxes is by taxing the use of both the city water and sewage systems.  Now, the city has the city has a big budget problem  overall - they're about (US)$218 million short of being solvent.  Cardenas notes there's that $40 million of that is a shortfall in the sewer and water department.  The city water commissioner is saying the thing to do is raise the sewer and water taxes.  Cardenas believes because bottled water drinkers are causing all of this, it's only fair they should pay to fix it.

Cardenas also pointed out the benefits to the environment that his bottled water tax would represent.  Few would argue that the bottled water industry hasn't been in a boom period - it's close to a $11 billion industry these days -- and the by-product of the industry is a hell of a lot of plastic refuse produced each year.  The question is, how does Cardena's idea float with the general public?  A lot of people think Cardenas is crazy for the target of his tax.  "Tax cigarettes, not water" was the reaction of one Chicagoan.  Another asked why they didn't "raise the taxes on pop" if they wanted to target something not so healthy that produces a lot of refuse.

Joseph Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), says he's aware of some cities which have stopped purchasing bottled water, but Chicago would be a first as a city which taxes bottled water.  In a response to a New York Times editorial critical of the bottled water industry, the IBWA stated its case.  The major points with some relevance to Cardenas' contentions are: the plastic refuse produced from bottled waters is not a major source of pollution; "bottled water consumption has nothing to with tap water infrastructure funding or drinking water system improvements"; and "any actions that discourage the use of this healthy beverage choice are not in the public interest."  Doss said that studies indicate that 75 percent of people drink both tap and bottled waters.  And, it turns out that some of the water sold in plastic bottles comes straight from the tap. At least that's what one major bottled water company is going to print on the side of their bottles.