The state’s new candy tax will also add honey to city and county budget pots across Washington. More than a half million dollars worth.
In most of Clark County, local taxes add an additional 1.7 percent to the state’s new 6.5 percent sales tax on most candies and bottled water, bringing the total tax to 8.2 percent.
Exactly how sweet the deal will be for local jurisdictions isn’t certain yet.
The state expects to get $30.5 million a year from candies (or, the ones that don’t have flour in their ingredients) and $32.6 million a year from bottled water. However, the state did not give local jurisdictions any projections about what they might get.
But hopefully area sugar junkies prefer Milky Ways over Twix (exempt because of its flour content): “Every dollar makes a difference,” County Budget Director Jim Dickman said.
Based on state projections, Clark County estimates it’ll get roughly $233,000 a year for its share of that tax. Vancouver thinks about $70,000 will roll in this year and $190,000 in following years. C-Tran may get about $200,000 a year.
The candy and bottled water taxes went into effect Tuesday. The bottled water tax expires in 2013; the candy tax does not expire.
State and local taxes are applied automatically to eligible products sorted by product codes separating taxable and nontaxable items, like other grocery products, Washington Department of Revenue spokesman Mike Gowrylow said.
Because the new state taxes on soda and other carbonated beverages, beer and cigarettes are flat charges rather than sales taxes, local taxes will not apply, he said.
While the tax is a boon to government, Allen Anderson, owner of Daisy Maiz, which makes and sells fudge and kettle corn in downtown Vancouver, said it’s almost enough to make him add a teaspoon of flour to his fudge recipe.
He won’t, but he said he’s concerned about the effect the new charges may have on his retail and wholesale business.
He said that over the weekend, before the new tax went into effect, people were buying a box of fudge or two more than normal, or a bag of kettle corn extra in anticipation of the rising cost.
As a candy store owner, Anderson’s never dealt with sales tax before, and isn’t certain if he’ll have to add it to wholesale orders in Portland, where his kettle corn is sold at Whole Foods and New Seasons grocery stores.
“We keep paying the bill, paying the bill, paying the bill,” he said. “I don’t know how it’s going to affect everybody, but it’s surely going to affect everybody.”
Andrea Damewood: 360-735-4542 or andrea.damewood@columbian.com.
