The legislation, which has been adjusted since the mayor’s initial plan, Wednesday passed a preliminary City Council committee vote in favor of the proposed tax hike on sugary beverages.
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Philadelphia City Council this week passed an amended proposal which will see a 1.5 cents-per-ounce tax added to soft drinks with added sugar and other sweeteners. “We expect that Philadelphia’s action will embolden mayors, city council members, governors, and state legislators from around the country to make these sensible taxes on soda the rule, and not the exception”.
To date, Philly is just the second US city to pass such a soda tax, following Berkeley, California.
It is hoped the tax will raise $91m over the next year and the money will be used to fund investment in community schools, parks and recreation centres among other projects.
Soda tax supporters appear flummoxed, but undaunted.
A small portion of the revenue would go to the fund the City’s balance.
Opponents of a proposed sugary drink tax demonstrate outside City Hall in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Cities including NY and San Francisco have tried to pass similar taxes, but have failed.
“Council members stood up to more than $4 million worth of beverage industry pressure to do the right thing for the long-term health and life chances of Philadelphia kids”, said Jim Krieger, a soda tax advocate and executive director of Healthy Food America in a statement.
The ABA opposes the tax and, according to NPR, they are joined by an unlikely ally: unions. And the tax had a “profound impact on the consumption of low-income Mexicans”, study author Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolinatells us.This is the group with the most untreated diabetes, he says.
The vote came after months of aggressive lobbying and advertising against the tax funded by major soda manufacturers. Last week, Claudia Vargas of the Inquirer reported that the Sanders’ campaign plans on having a rally the day before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
The city council’s Committee of the Whole voted this week in favour of a US$0.015-per-ounce levy. The revised proposal is expected to bring in $91m for the city.
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“This is going to hit consumers very hard”, Anthony Campisi, the spokesman for Philadelphians Against the Grocery Tax, told ABC News. The industry has spent more than $100 million since 2009 to defeat tax initiatives in more than two dozen cities and states, arguing that they are discriminatory. “People with the economic means with a auto are saying, ‘the heck with it, ‘ and we’re going to chase them out of the city”, said Ken Klein, Klein’s Supermarket.
