The only good thing about Philadelphia’s newly-imposed soda tax is that proponents were somewhat honest about it, admitting it wasn’t about improving public health. Exceptions include baby formula, products that are 50% by volume milk or fresh juice and/or vegetables, unsweetened drinks and syrups or concentrates customers use to personally sweeten or prepare a beverage. The group has said Philadelphia’s passage of the tax resulted from local political conditions and was unlikely to have a ripple effect in other cities.
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Soda tax proposals like Philadelphia’s have failed in more than 30 cities and states in recent years, including twice in Philadelphia. Superficial similarities aside, it turns out that what passes for high-minded resistance to “Big Soda” in Berkeley looks a lot more like arrogant meddling in Philadelphia.
Following Thursday’s vote, the ABA said it would take legal action to stop the tax.
There was a lively debate before the City Council voted in favor of the measure.
“It’s been generations we’ve been going downhill with our kids in our neighborhoods”, Kenney said.
Kenney said the city was prepared to defend the tax in any litigation from the beverage industry.
The councilmembers who voted against the soda tax were Republicans Brian O’Neill, 10th District; Allan Domb, at-large; and Al Taubenberger, at-large – along with Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez, 7th District, who has long opposed the sugar-sweetened drinks tax. Needless to say, this is not the way an obesity-fighting social engineer would have designed the tax, which is now simply a way for the city to raise money on the backs of poor and working-class residents.
“You are acting boldly to deal with very real concerns and needs of Philadelphians and our country as a whole”. If they pass, they could contribute further to a decline in United States soda consumption, which fell for the 11th straight year in 2015, according to Euromonitor data.
The city estimates the sweetened-beverage tax will generate $91 million in annual revenue after being fully implemented and that it will collect $409.5 million over the next five fiscal years. Critics say the tax will cost them business and put a burden on low income shoppers, but the mayor praised the city council’s resistance to the beverage industry.
“If this tax is passed, Philadelphia would create the worst black market for non-alcoholic beverages since prohibition, which was back in the 1920s and 30s”. The American Beverage Association described the soft drink tax as “discriminatory and highly unpopular”.
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“Pre-K moms and dads and parks and recreation and library advocates really banded together with clergy and organized labor and told council members this is what they wanted”, said Mr. Kenney. “How they do it. How they approach it”, Kenney said.
