CONUS Commissaries to Close

An article on military.com discusses that the problem with closing only some of the commissaries is overall prices will raise because they buy in high volume. By closing the larger stores like Belvoir they will lose that edge in pricing, and that will impact the stores that will be left open.

I believe they said that 24 stores will not close because of their remote location, like Irwin, and the OConus in AK and Hawaii.

In essence by leaving just these stores open all it maybe doing is creating a slow death spiral for the commissaries anyway.
 
GoArmyBeatNavy said:
Ding Ding. This should be the way ahead. I don't pay taxes at my on post Starbucks.

Keep the CONUS commissaries for Fort Irwin, Herlong or Barstow Logistics Base and similar remote locations.
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But why shouldn't you pay taxes on Starbucks?
 
Because coffee is a food? And is necessary for life itself?
 
In some states, food, and clothing are not taxable because it is a necessity!

LITS,

You yourself should know taxes vary because DC's rate is insane compared to VA. In NJ, food is not taxable, nor is clothing. Go to Woodbridge Mall in NJ on any weekend and the majority of license plates are NY, Staten Island is a stone's throw away, and the cost of the toll makes up for that fact when you are buying a 200 buck coach purse with no tax.

Additionally, if on base, it is on a federal installation. I can go and buy food at the Belvoir commissary, pay 5% surcharge, but not pay the VA tax. Just like if I go to BK on base, my 99 cent burger is 99 cents, but off post it is 1.06. Or how your alcohol on base does not include taxes, but at the ABC it does.
 
Pima said:
In some states, food, and clothing are not taxable because it is a necessity!

LITS,

You yourself should know taxes vary because DC's rate is insane compared to VA. In NJ, food is not taxable, nor is clothing. Go to Woodbridge Mall in NJ on any weekend and the majority of license plates are NY, Staten Island is a stone's throw away, and the cost of the toll makes up for that fact when you are buying a 200 buck coach purse with no tax.

Additionally, if on base, it is on a federal installation. I can go and buy food at the Belvoir commissary, pay 5% surcharge, but not pay the VA tax. Just like if I go to BK on base, my 99 cent burger is 99 cents, but off post it is 1.06. Or how your alcohol on base does not include taxes, but at the ABC it does.
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Haha, so true. Varying taxes is a major reason I voted with my feet and moved from MD BACK to VA. My question is, why don't bases follow the tax code of the community around them? I understand the concept of legal residence, but why should your burger at Burger King on base be 99 cents, but $1.06 off base?
 
The same reason why the schools ask on the 1st week of school if the child has a parent in the military or is employed by the govt. They aren't asking for grins and giggles, they are asking because they get money if their parents check that box.

A military installation is on federal land, it does not belong for tax purposes to the state.

Do you pay federal tax at your Starbucks? No! You pay VA taxes.

OBTW, as a realtor, I can't tell you how many are willing to buy/pay more on the VA side because the MD side RE taxes are insane, thus when they look at the numbers, and the school system, the mtg is same the price, while the schools are better.
 
And yet emergency personnel REGULARLY assist bases. Why? They aren't supporting the community.

Because they are part of the community.

How much does a state lose in taxes because of that federal land? I get the bases also bring "jobs". But I would hesitate to speak too loudly about "it's federal land." In most cases, it's the state that saves a base from BRAC.

So what do we do? Make a change. Require all non-mission related business on bases to be taxed as any other state business, and where applicable, sales taxes too.


OR.... even better, redesign the tax code, simplify, cut loopholes (of all kinds) and see what that does. I'd pay less, which I would certainly appreciate.
 
LineInTheSand said:
OR.... even better, redesign the tax code, simplify, cut loopholes (of all kinds) and see what that does. I'd pay less, which I would certainly appreciate.
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I might be for that even if I didn't pay less. IMPO our tax system has become absolutely ridiculous.
 
Actually the Army as well as AF and Navy bases all have their own emergency services and pay local impact fees to surrounding communities.
As far as changing the tax codes- sure- let me know when that happens. These are benefits whether or not any of you use them and they absolutely are both perceived and marketed as such and are very effectively used as retention and enlistment tools, and unlike the bachelors and field grade officers on this forum, those benefits do indeed get counted as such by the soldiers who do the job. The government is rife with baloney promises of benefits being taken away to be replaced at some future date by "improvements and reforms", most of which don't seem to materialize. Why not ask TPG or Christcorp, both of whom have long years as enlisted soldiers whether the troops rely on the benefits that you are "oh so cavalierly" tossing. And before you toss out terms like " the market" perhaps you should consider the likely consequences should you guess wrong with all of your theories on the perceived enlistment and retention value of various benefits. It's not a decrease in market share. And unlike GE - when you lose your personnel in this market there is no overseas supplier to provide you with sourced product. So go ahead- knock yourselves out and treat your soldiers like they are starting laborers in the local foundry. Good plan- unless of course you don't want a different caliber of people in the force - then you are screwed, because recovering from lousy decisions is always far more painful than avoiding screwing it up to begin with. LITS doesn't know that because he never saw a force like that but there are a few on this forum who know what I am talking about.
 
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bruno said:
Actually the Army as well as AF and Navy bases all have their own emergency services and pay local impact fees to surrounding communities.
As far as changing the tax codes- sure- let me know when that happens. These are benefits whether or not any of you use them and they absolutely are both perceived and marketed as such and are very effectively used as retention and enlistment tools, and unlike the bachelors and field grade officers on this forum, those benefits do indeed get counted as such by the soldiers who do the job. The government is rife with baloney promises of benefits being taken away to be replaced at some future date by "improvements and reforms", most of which don't seem to materialize. Why not ask TPG or Christcorp, both of whom have long years as enlisted soldiers whether the troops rely on the benefits that you are "oh so cavalierly" tossing. And before you toss out terms like " the market" perhaps you should consider the likely consequences should you guess wrong with all of your theories on the perceived enlistment and retention value of various benefits. It's not a decrease in market share. And unlike GE - when you lose your personnel in this market there is no overseas supplier to provide you with sourced product. So go ahead- knock yourselves out and treat your soldiers like they are starting laborers in the local foundry. Good plan- unless of course you don't want a different caliber of people in the force - then you are screwed, because recovering from lousy decisions is always far more painful than avoiding screwing it up to begin with. LITS doesn't know that because he never saw a force like that but there are a few on this forum who know what I am talking about.
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I don't disagree with much you have to say here Bruno.

I consider myself a fairly conservative free market guy. A few weeks ago I finished Milton Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom" and I'm burning through "Freedom to Choose." It is an enlightened work, very well written, and distilled for the layman.

What Friedman would say is, why have to government decide? Instead of providing specific breaks by the "all knowing government," give them the money and let them decide.

I have worked with folks who were in the service as it was gutted, and it isn't pretty. What's I'm describing is what already happens.

I also agree that certain tax issues won't change, it that's not because they shouldn't, but instead because we don't have the political will in this country to do anything, which is driving us down a course to ruin. And yes, ruin can come to the U.S.
 
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