El Monte might tax fat kids

July 25, 2012

By John Seiler

In the great Clint Eastwood Western “The Outlaw Josie Wales,” the Yankee Terrill says, “Doin’ right ain’t got no end.”

So it is with busybodies everywhere. They just won’t leave us alone.

The California Center for Public Health Advocacy just sent out a press release:

“The City of El Monte’s City Council unanimously voted to put a soda tax measure on the November ballot at their meeting last night.

“With this vote, El Monte becomes the second city in California, after Richmond, to propose taxing soda and other sugary drinks as a way to counter their unprecedented childhood obesity crisis. El Monte has the ninth highest rate of childhood overweight and obesity out of 250 cities in California, according to a recent study released by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA).

“Overweight and obesity affect more than half (50.2 percent) of the children in the city of El Monte.”

The tax would raise $7 million a year. That’s assuming city serfs don’t trek to neighboring cities to slake their soda cravings.

Of course, it’s just a coincidence that the city has financial problems because, reported the L.A. Times:

“El Monte has also awarded generous benefits to some of its top employees. Former Police Chief Thomas Armstrong, who retired in May 2011, collected nearly $430,000 in his final year with the city through a combination of salary and payouts for unused time off. Armstrong and two other former police chiefs now receive yearly CalPERS pensions of more than $200,000.”

So the real bloat in the city is the obese compensation — salaries and pensions — given to unionized government workers. To pay for that, they’re going to loot kids and their parents even more.

After all, the cops and firefighters have huge bills for donuts.