The flip side of what they call Sin Taxes …
I’m not talking about the sales tax you pay when you buy a Playboy or Playgirl magazine. Actually you can’t buy either now. Playboy – in magazine form – died in May 2017. Playgirl, in the winter of 2016.
Think of all those “dirty bookstores” like the former Time to Read on 12th and Main in downtown Kansas City that have bit the dust.
Now the folks my twin daughters call “creepers,” have to buy computers or go to lame-looking adult stores along the Interstates.
Sad, huh?
Black Friday alert: Not-to-worry, you can still buy Playboy T-shirts, hoodies and “wellness” supplements” – calendars, ibido Gummies, thongs and socks on Playboy’s website at discount prices no less.
Back to those sin taxes…
A sin tax is “an excise tax on specific goods and services due to their ability, or perception, to be harmful or costly to society.”
Stuff like alcohol, tobacco and THC gummies – now legally available in the Great State of Missouri.
It’s a brave new world out there, and darn near anything goes.
like Vanderbilt beating Alabama. Kamala beating Joe Biden, then trying to beat Donald Trump.
The worst sin tax in the eyes of Westport businessman Bill Nigro:
Those fun-looking casinos and legalized gambling.
Which is killing off independent businesses, devastating families and fortunes, while giving chump change to schools via the so-called Gaming Proceeds for Education Fund.
Ah, but don’t worry, it’s audited, right?
Its March 2024 audit notes that, “Our report expressed qualified opinions on the governmental activities and the General Fund because we were not allowed access to tax returns and related source documents for income taxes. Our report expressed unmodified opinions on all remaining opinion units.”
And ends with this disclaimer:
“No findings resulted from our audit procedures related to the Gaming Proceeds for Education Fund and the Classroom Trust Fund.”
Huh?
“It’s just that people aren’t realizing the impact gambling sales has on small businesses,” Nigro grouses. “Fewer people eat out, go to movies and other things people usually do. I mean, it’s here to stay, but there are a lot of negatives people don’t think about. It takes a lot of disposable income out of the market for local businesses.”
