CHICAGO — Mayor Richard Daley is officially proposing a 10-cent tax on bottled water as part of his $5.4 billion 2008 budget presented to the city council on October 10, a recent cbs2chicago story said.
"I've decided, reluctantly, that, as our last resort, we must ask taxpayers for more," Daley said in the story.
One resident, Lauren Hurley, said in the story, “I’ll try to drink more tap water, try to cut down on a lot of other things. What I can do is what all I can do.”
An October 10 Chicago Tribunequoted Alderman George Cardenas (12th), who campaigned for a bottled-water tax in August, as saying, “Money-wise, it’s a good idea, and environmentally, it’s a good idea … People get upset when they hear the word tax. There’s no tax on water. There’s a tax on the plastic. [Tap] water is practically free.”
Some are unhappy with the Mayor’s proposal. David Vite, president of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said in the story, “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.”
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