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Thursday, March 11, 2010

A Soda Tax?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-florez/a-day-of-judgment-for-big_b_482324.html

Well as a Parks and Recreational professional myself, and an active adult person, I have both participated and planned programs that promote health, exercise, outdoor activity and fight obesity. I too, plan or try to plan programs that could potentially fight childhood obesity - however that funding is going away. After school "open gyms" are rare, if not obsolete in some community in AZ, and those help with youth crime rates too. After school programs, pools, parks, facilities for recreation are ALL cutting programs, staff, hours and/or worse closing! So, yes, if a soda tax supported parks and recreation, I could support a small tax. HOWEVER, don't be fooled, I work in government, I see where taxes go and where they don't go! I fear politicians will see this tax as another pay day - they will be so crafty as to write in their own self sustaining loop holes that allow them to pull the funding from parks and recreation whenever they feel like it. Much like they have with State Parks Funding, Heritage Funds, Arts and Cultural Funds, etc. So I proceed with caution!! They may use this "front" of helping childhood obesity and long term health care programs to successfully doop the public into funding their financial problems...again.

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