The sugary beverages tax was met with criticism for its regressive nature, particularly the fact that the council chose to tax drinks more likely to be consumed by people of color and low-income people, exempting sweetened coffee beverages.
It was more subtle and far more likely to fall on people who need it to do basic things like hydrate or wash their hands — people experiencing homelessness.
Water taxes everywhere As it happens, the story of the bottled water tax is anything but straightforward and is oddly intertwined with a charge on something else entirely — a now-defunct statewide sugary drinks tax.
The 31 states that agreed would not tax bottled water.
For a short time, there was a statewide tax on both bottled water and carbonated beverages.
Basically, that means that if a person goes to a store and refills their own reusable container, they could still get taxed on the water.
People can receive a refund on the taxes if they live in an area that does not have potable water or if a doctor prescribes water for a medical condition.
That doesn’t give people like Tibbits, or folks in encampments who rely on bottled water for basic hygiene and survival, much help.
Taxes on bottled water and other single-use containers are not unique to Washington state.
Ideally, taxes should be used to mitigate the harm done by the product, but the additional sales tax garnered from bottled water has no such direct use.