Deanie Franz dishes candy into a bag for a customer last Friday at her Main Street business.

Taxing  candy  doesn’t go down well

BY SOPHIA ALDOUS
S-E Staff Reporter

    While some may see candy as a simple luxury, the Washington State Legislature is seeing it as an opportunity to generate much-needed revenue by implementing a tax on sweets.
    Most food, including candy, is exempt from the 6.5 percent sales tax and local add-ons, but the state’s $2.8 billion budget shortfall could per­suade state lawmakers to change that.
    Proponents of the tax say that it will discourage eating unhealthy confections in a state where 25.4 percent of adults are obese, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    But for small businesses like Colville’s Gramma Deanie’s Gifts and Goodies, the possible tax represents an ominous hindrance.
    “I have to balance my budget, why doesn’t the gov­ernment?” questioned Gramma Deanie’s owner, Deanie Franz. “And the way they are proposing this is just ridiculous. Like a Twix bar has a cookie in it, so technically it’s not a candy and can’t be taxed. What?”
    The Department of Revenue estimates that raising the tax would raise $28 million in its first year.
    According to Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, a Seattle Democrat, any money col­lected from the proposed tax should not just go to the state budget’s bottom line, but to public health care instead.

‘Won’t benefit
bottom line’

    “The tax should pertain to the revenue raised from it,” said Kohl-Welles  
    Kohl-Welles introduced a measure last session that would allot the money raised from the candy tax to dental and medical services by giving competitive grants to commu­nity health centers. A similar plan from Rep. Jim Moeller of Vancouver would distribute the money to local health ju­risdictions for them to im­prove public health as they see fit.
    Other state politicians though aren’t too keen on the idea, likening the scenario to “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
    “If the tax were imple­mented, I think it should go to diabetes programs,” said Rep. Joel Kretz of Wauconda.  “Honestly, I don’t see how taxing candy is going to really benefit the bottom line. I just don’t think this is the time to increase the cost of anything.”
    Franz said that she has al­ready had to reduce her em­ployees’ hours because of the current economic recession. With the cost of freight she has to pay on each order of candy, on top of the proposed tax increase, the result would not be fortuitous for business.
    “We have a lot of low-income people in this area, and it’s nice to be able to offer a variety of candies to people at a decent price,” explained Franz. “I mean, kids can come in here and get more than one piece of candy with just a nickel. If I have to charge people more, they are going to go where it costs less, and I can’t just lower my prices be­cause I’m a smaller business. I want to satisfy my customers and make people happy, and this tax would not help that at all.”