Santa Fe voters reject soda tax, hand rare win to industry

Associated Press ^ | May 3, 2017 1:29 AM EDT | Morgan Lee

[Olog-hai]

Voters in New Mexico’s capital city rejected a tax increase on sweetened beverages Tuesday, handing a rare victory to the soft-drink industry after a string of recent defeats.

The tax failed with 11,533 votes against and only 8,382 votes in favor, the Santa Fe City Clerk’s Office announced.

The special election came after similar taxes were adopted last year in cities from Philadelphia to San Francisco. Outside groups and political committees spent more than $3 million on the special election in Santa Fe, with opponents led by the soft-drink industry and supporters by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, a staunch supporter of taxes on sugary beverages.

A variety of sugar-sweetened beverages would have fallen under the tax, including sport drinks such as Gatorade, iced teas, caffeinated energy drinks and lemonade, while diet soda and pure juices were exempt. …

[Secret Agent Man]

They actually handed the win to themselves.

Yes tax votes are votes to take away more of your own money.

[mindburglar]

It takes a special kind of asshole to vote to tax what somebody else wants to drink.

Wtf are these creeps?

[Liberty Valance]

I shall have a green chile cheeseburger and a coke today in celebration of Santa Fe's better angels.

[PGalt]

HOORAY Santa Fe voters. The conniving legislators who put this on a ballot should be ousted.

T.E.A.

[CedarDave]

That is Santa Fe where the elite population (living with Daddy’s money) pushed this tax. The lower class and majority Hispanics who would pay the price turned out in force to defeat this.

[Bonemaker]

If the communists/democrats lose in Santte Fe they’ve go some serious problems.

[sphinx]

That is Santa Fe where the elite population (living with Daddy’s money) pushed this tax.

Someone should propose to replace the lost revenue with an excise tax on Starbucks coffee, organic foods, and electric vehicles.

[CedarDave]

Thanks for the Ping. This morning I updated it with an ABQ Journal story.

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[CedarDave]

In New Mexico McDonald’s “dollar menu” double cheeseburger is the “green chile double cheeseburger” YUM!

And just across the state line from us in Texas, when you ask for chile you get Tex-Mex chili and beans.

[Liberty Valance]

Yep. I have to make them myself here in central Texas. I love it when the local HEB roasts Hatch chiles in the parking lot.

[IYAS9YAS]

Good on them. This was so bad, that a powdered drink mix with sugar/sweetener in it would be taxed not on the net weight of the contents, but on what the container would make and the recommended mix ratios. The tax was $0.02/ per ounce. That means a 2-liter bottle of soda (which is 67.63 fluid ounces), which currently sells at WalMart (brand name, the WalMart brands are around a buck each) around here for about $1.35 would go effectively double in price to $2.70.

Naturally, chocolate milk and real fruit juices (with just as much sugar, if not more, per fluid ounce) would not be taxed.