This is interesting: on April 24, Del. Tom Rust's (R-86th) Wikipedia page had
this language:
Rust introduced the HB 6017 Food and beverage tax, which allows counties to impose without referendum a tax rate, not to exceed 4%, provided the revenues raised are used solely for new transportation construction programs. The Grocery Manufacturer's of America released a statement saying "Selective food and beverage taxation is also arbitrary, discriminatory, and regressive. Placing a tax on one item within a category and excluding other items leads to consumer and retailer confusion and establishes government-imposed preferences that may unfairly affect consumer-purchasing decisions. Furthermore, selective food and beverage taxes disproportionately affect households with lower incomes because a larger percentage of their income goes toward food purchases..."
Rust also authored and supported the "abusive drivers fee" law, which added a $1000 fine to the $200 court bill for abusive and reckless drivers [2]
Now,
that language is gone. Apparently, with Rust facing a potentially tough challenge from
Supervisor Stevens Miller in a district won easily (61%-39%) by Barack Obama last November, somebody scrubbed any reference to Rust's prominent role in the "abuser fees" fiasco. Gee, I wonder who that could have been and why. Ha.
