Apparently, the liberal attitude doesn't extend to their coffee.
I love some of the quotes in this article about the outcry (color added by me):
"This is not a luxury," 34-year-old tech support worker Rob Marker said solemnly, hoisting his iced vanilla mocha on the sidewalk outside the hip cafe Coffee Messiah. "Here I am, forced to pay more for my basic necessity to fund irresponsibility."Now, keep in mind, that "Initiative 77" would tax only espresso drinks, such as lattes and cappuccinos, not drip coffee - even proponents understand that caffeine is a basic food group here. So you aren't being taxed for coffee, but for the luxury of fancy-schmancy extra stuff. You don't like it, stop with your double-mocha quad-shot soy-milk, extra-foam, half-caff latte (with a flavor shot) and go drink some Folger's. Meanwhile, the tax is expected to raise somewhere around $3.5 million annually, and, as initiative sponsor John Burbank, executive director of the nonprofit Economic Opportunity Institute, says, given Seattle's love of espresso, it's basically recession-proof.
Security guard C. J. Lessig, between sips of her iced coconut mocha, agreed: "It's a way of life, man!"
What we apparently have here is a bunch of freaks who are willing to shell out insane prices for COFFEE, but not willing to shell out an extra dime on top of what they pay for this crap. Hey, I'm just as big a supporter of putting an end to this rampant and pointless production of children that cannot be taken care of, but the ones that are here don't deserve to be the brunt of this assault.