USDA Fee On Live Christmas Trees Quietly Goes Into Effect: Government Says ‘Not A Tax’
Live Christmas trees just got a little more expensive. Thanks to a little known provision passed by the government, a fee will be imposed on every fresh-cut tree sold in the U.S.
According to Breitbart, the federal government created a national marketing program to promote the virtues of real Christmas trees, and it is being funded by a 15-cent surcharge added to the cost of each live tree sold.
Times are difficult for Christmas tree growers. An industry task force reported that the market share for fresh-cut Christmas trees in the U.S. declined by 6 percent from 1965 to 2008, while the market share for artificial trees increased by 655 percent in that same period.
Several years ago, the task force asked the federal government for help, and earlier this year, the Department of Agriculture gave them a way to fund a marketing program to compete with the heavy advertising by the artificial Christmas tree industry.
Despite what it appears to be, though, the government insists the surcharge is not a tax – it is simply a fee you have to pay if you buy a live Christmas tree.
“Congress required that the research and promotion program for fresh cut Christmas trees move forward in the Agricultural Act of 2014,” a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson said. “The Christmas tree industry requested this initiative to fund Christmas tree research and marketing, the program will be funded solely by the industry and the government is not imposing any tax on Christmas trees.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that the surcharge on Christmas trees was originally announced in 2011. But the fee was put on hold after Republicans voiced their opposition, as reported by the Inquisitr.
“It’s the single stupidest tax of all time,” said Republican Sen. Jim DeMint at the time it was proposed.
The fee, however, was quietly imposed as part of the 2014 Farm Bill signed by President Obama earlier this year, and very few people even noticed it.
The Heritage Foundation opposed the rule, urging the USDA to withdraw it and saying it was “an inappropriate use of governmental power in a society based on free markets, limited government, and individual freedom.”
Others supported it, however, including third-generation Christmas tree grower Jack W. Wiseman, Jr.
“My father and grandfather planted the first trees on the farm in 1959,” Wiseman said. “The real Christmas tree industry desperately needs this for research and marketing purposes to spread the message about the environmental advantages of a real Christmas tree and to help save our family farms and our farm heritage.”
Regulators defended the new fee by pointing out that other products, including pork, beef, and milk have federally funded advertising campaigns.
What do you think? Is this really a tax? And should the government be able to force consumers to help industries in trouble market their products?
[Image via Galleryhip]
