116) Health Tax

I'm spending the night with a good friend in San Francisco, and we just returned from dessert at Burger Bar in Union Square. On our bill, under the tax, was a line item called, "Healthy SF Tax." This isn't the first time I've encountered the mysterious Healthy SF Tax - it reared its head at Pizza Delfina back in February.

The thing about the Healthy SF Tax is that no one knows what it is exactly. On both encounters, we questioned the waitresses, who gave vague, I'm-not-really-sure answers. A quick Google search yielded this answer from the Wall Street Journal:

Since the beginning of the year, San Francisco businesses have been required to offer health insurance to employees or pay a fee to the city to fund health care. Some restaurants are passing the fee on to consumers in the form of a health surcharge, which shows up on the bill as a flat fee ($1 per person, or so) or as a percentage (like sales tax).

If the SF health care mandate is meant to benefit restaurant employees, you would think that waitresses would be the Healthy SF Tax's biggest advocates. Or at the very least know what the it is. And if the beneficiaries aren't aware, then you can be sure the general restaurant-going public is in the dark. Way in the dark:

So, my friends and I were having dinner in the city this past weekend, when we were hit with the "health tax" on the bill. Hmmm....never heard of this, so we asked the waiter, who told us the mayor has recently enforced a health tax of 50 cents on each food item sold throughout restaurants in the city. The money is pooled and then distributed to the homeless. They get $500 CASH to better their lives!

For all the debate surrounding the Healthy SF Tax (sometimes called "health fee" or "health surcharge"), there seems to be a disconnect between restaurants, their employees and their customers. A misunderstanding somewhere along the way. It's amazing how essential, yet often overlooked clear communication in public policy is.

Note on the photo: not our actual bill.