Since its enactment retailers have struggled to understand how to implement the tax, county residents are doing their shopping outside the county limits to avoid the tax and it’s only been one week.

Columnist Robert Reed of the Chicago Tribune is calling the tax, “…a confusing nightmare for large and small food store operators, fast-food chains and other outlets charged with collecting and keeping tabs on a new wave of incoming funds.”

Consumers are not being fooled by this shakedown policy; a recent poll shows 87 percent of residents disapprove of the beverage tax. “At the end of the day, we’re left with a tax that’s universally hated, nearly impossible to implement and probably won’t bring in the revenue its backers expected,” Reed says.

Beverage taxes are bad policy. They hurt small businesses, target low-income families and cost jobs for people who live paycheck to paycheck. It’s no wonder people are calling for it to be repealed.