Lemonade stand crackdown spurs revolt | World | News | Toronto Sun This article is proof that common sense is not that common when it comes to the enforcement of laws. Lemonade stand crackdown spurs revolt A seven-year-old girl learned a hard business lesson recently when Portland, Ore., authorities shut down her lemonade stand. Officials with Multnomah County told Julie Murphy she needed a $120 licence to operate her lemonade stand at a neighbourhood event. Murphy's mother told The Oregonian newspaper that they were threatened with a $500 fine just minutes after Julie set up her table. She was selling glasses of lemonade for 50 cents. A health supervisor for the county told the newspaper the booth had to be shut down because of public safety concerns. But Julie's mom, Maria Fife, said her daughter was very careful when she made the lemonade. After inspectors approached them, the mother and daughter started to pack up. However, other vendors encouraged them to stay and to give away the lemonade, but say people could give them a donation. Julie and her mother gave that a try, but soon the inspectors returned and forced them to close their booth for good. Some of the vendors and people who were at the event are now planning the Lemonade Revolt to be held Aug. 27. The Facebook Event page for the revolt says they want to fill an entire block with lemonade stands. "Get together with your friends and family and come up with a creative lemonade. Rosemary, lavender, mint, honey, agave, mate, carob, what the f--- ever you can come up with," the group says. "We should fill the entire bloc with lemonade stands! The state will come, but we will NOT leave. We will fill the streets with dance and revelry in the spirit of last Thursday's origins, an autonomous, anarchistic freak show that reclaims the streets, the neighbourhoods and our lives."
We had the same thing here in NY when the State was going to fine a kid for selling night crawlers to fishermen and not collecting sales tax. You gotta love bureaucrats!
Next all the 16 year old babysitters will have to pay income taxes on the $30 they made while mom and dad went to the movies.
