Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Associated Press
NEW YORK
After years of stamping out soda-tax proposals with well-financed campaigns, Big Soda is suddenly finding itself up against bigger adversaries.
Voters and lawmakers in five municipalities such as San Francisco and the county that includes Chicago approved special taxes on sugary drinks last week, with advocates saying the victories point to a change in public attitudes and the beginnings of a movement. What’s also changed, though, is that they’re now backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who as mayor of New York. lost a bruising fight to limit the size of sugary drinks.
The soda industry dismisses the notion that the measures amount to a movement, and says the proposals are being pushed in places more likely to pass them.
“It’s sort of a pesky thing that comes up now and then,” Susan Neely, president of the American Beverage Association that represents Coke, Pepsi and others, said before the election.
Seven U.S. cities now have special, per-ounce taxes on sugary drinks. All were approved in the past two years, and got backing from Bloomberg Philanthropies, as well as from Laura and John Arnold, the latter of whom ran a hedge fund.
Others that passed last week were in Oakland and Albany, Calif., and Boulder, Colo. They follow Berkeley, Calif., in 2014, and Philadelphia this summer. Bloomberg Philanthropies said it will help others that come forward.
The long-term effects of such taxes still aren’t clear, with studies of recently enacted measures still in progress – some of them funded by $10.5 million Bloomberg dedicated to such research.
Even if taxes of 1 or 2 cents per ounce hike prices about 10 percent and don’t affect how much soda people drink, the industry fears the stigma of being singled out and the potential for the taxes to be increased.
Already, soda consumption has been declining, though other sweetened drinks such as sports beverages and bottled teas have grown, and obesity rates keep climbing.