Hi.
On Oct 7, 2016, at 11:31 AM, No on HH Research Team info@nooaklandgrocerytax.com wrote:
If you’re the research team, why are you doing advocacy? What’s the communications team doing right now?
Dear Neighbor,
🤔 Are we neighbors? I would say my neighbors are people close enough that I would walk to visit them. This feels like false intimacy. Why not tell me where you are?
Affordable housing, creating stronger schools, investing in infrastructure, selecting a new police chief – aren’t these the things our politicians should be focusing on?
They are things our politicians should be working on. I put a lot of weight in other issues too, like racism and violence in the police and justice system, displacement and inequality, air pollution, disaster preparedness, public health, and how to do more than our part to prevent climate change.
But sadly a few Oakland politicians are pushing hard to pass a grocery tax called Measure HH.
Not seeing the sad part yet.
They want you to think it’s a soda tax –
Which it is, right? Can you say that HH is not a soda tax? It does not tax soda?
but don’t be fooled.
Okay, let’s strike a bargain – I won’t be fooled, and you stop trying to fool me.
If you do the research yourself at OaklandGroceryTaxFacts.org, you’ll see Measure HH is a grocery tax.
When you say do the research for myself and then point at your research, which is presumably not impartial, it comes across like you think I’m slow.
Both here and in the idea that focusing on some issues means politicians should ignore others, you seem to miss that “I like chocolate” is different from “I don’t like strawberry”. Politicians can work on several things at once; taxes can have more than one effect.
As far as I can see, HH is primarily a soda tax, and it may have some minor side effects on groceries. You came right at this idea but never touched it.
Measure HH is a tax on distributors, who in most cases are the local store and restaurant owners themselves. This will increase the tax burden on local grocery stores and restaurants and force them to raise prices so they can recover the cost of the new tax.
In other words, it’s a tax. What you’re saying isn’t substantially different from how any other sales tax works, is it? Are you against all sales tax? That’s what you’re hinting at, but you’re not making the case.
A local judge confirmed that it is “obvious that local grocers and other retailers will likely pass the tax through the chain of distribution to the ultimate consumer.” This is the textbook definition of a grocery tax.
Why cite a “local judge” without either context or a link to the source? Were they speaking in their official capacity? Is this a retired dog show judge? Quotes that look badly cherry-picked make it seem like you don’t have anything better to show.
Furthermore, the quote suggest that HH will do what’s intended: serve as a disincentive to buying soda. This quote is basically saying “the tax will be a tax”.
And finally, I’d hope that a reputable textbook would define a grocery tax as a tax on groceries.
And please remember, state law prohibits local governments from placing a sales tax on most beverages.
I didn’t remember that; it’s news to me.
Why “most”? Again, being more specific would help. I don’t know what your point is. Are you saying that sugary juice drinks are protected from taxation, so a soda tax won’t help with the obesity problem? Are you saying that the soda tax will violate state law? Are you saying that it’s not fair to tax soda if healthier drinks aren’t taxed the same way? I don’t disagree with your point here – I don’t know what it is.
That’s why this is not a soda tax, it is a tax on local grocery stores and restaurants that can be passed on to any single item you buy.
So I take it your position is that any tax that applies to a business that sells groceries is a grocery tax? If so, why pick on HH instead of the hundreds of other taxes that impinge on corner stores? If not, why aren’t you articulating a more specific point?
Oakland is already one of the most expensive cities in America with plenty of problems that need fixing – but if a few politicians get their way, we will get a grocery tax faster than we get a new police chief.
This seems like you’re saying that we should slow down work on one problem just so that it isn’t embarrassingly solved before another problem. If you’re arguing that campaigning for HH is diverting attention away from more important things, you could make the same case about campaigning against HH.
You can’t seem to decide whether you think HH is a trivial distraction or a policy mistake. When you imply it’s a trivial distraction, you don’t act like it is, by ignoring it. When you imply it’s a policy mistake, you don’t act like it is, by diagnosing it.
It’s true Oakland is one of the most expensive cities in the US. It also has a very serious obesity problem (http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2014/07/10/report-finds-overweight-obesity-costing-alameda-county-billions/). Failing to address this – not bringing any counterarguments at all – makes it seem like you’re going after low-information voters who have never heard any argument for HH. As a moderate-information voter, I feel like you’re patronizing me.
I’m not entirely convinced that a soda tax is a good way of addressing the public health problem. I’m dispirited that we aren’t talking more about positive interventions: finding ways to get better cheap food into the West Oakland food desert, for example. I’m also troubled by the idea of intervening in the food choices of poorer people, mainly poorer people of color, without addressing the larger structural causes of the problem and the ways that top-down “fixing” might end up playing into those problems. What I’m getting from this letter is that you don’t care about any of that. You’re not interested in a critique of HH any deeper than pointing out that it’s a tax, and you’re not imagining something better than HH.
Enough is enough.
Enough of what?
Join hundreds of Oakland small businesses and over ten thousand Oakland friends and neighbors and say NO to the grocery tax. Vote NO on Measure HH.
There more than 400 businesses in – I did a web search at random – Chinatown alone, and there are 422,000 people in Oakland. HH may or may not pass, but it feels telling that the only numbers in your letter don’t show the groundswell/social proof that you seem to think they do.
Sincerely,
The No Oakland Grocery Tax Research Team
What research, just in broad terms, have you done?
Wait, is the research polling and focus groups? I just got that. This whole time I thought it was supposed to be research on HH itself. I’m not sure who I’m more embarrassed for, me for not realizing or you for not doing your homework.
Paid for by No on HH: No Oakland Grocery Tax with Major Funding by American Beverage Association California PAC.
If it’s a grocery tax, why am I seeing Beverage?
Look. I’m not convinced HH is a great idea. But here you had a chance to make your best case that it’s bad – and you didn’t change my mind at all. After reading this letter I feel my critical thinking skills have been disrespected. And I’m more likely than before to vote for HH, if these are the best counterarguments that millions of dollars can buy.
Looking forward to your reply,
Charlie Loyd
Oakland voter and occasional soda drinker