Five Years Later, Philadelphia's Soda Tax Is Falling Flat
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Reason ^
| 9.13.2023 | John Stossel
The city wanted to bring in more money, in part for early childhood education. But
such taxes are disproportionately paid by the poor.Want a soda? You'll pay more for one in Philadelphia, because five years ago, local politicians decided to tax it. They're "protecting" people, they said. The tax would "reduce obesity" and "lower diabetes rates." But their main goal was to bring in more money, which they said would "fund early childhood education" and "help a lot of families." I reported on this five years ago, right after the tax went into effect. My new video updates what happened....
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Hits Keep Piling Up Against Philadelphia Soda Tax
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Political Calculations ^
| February 15, 2019 | PC
Two years after it first went into effect, the negative fallout from Philadelphia's controversial soda tax continues to pile up. Here's
a short summary of the news that has broken since we last reviewed what has perhaps become the most unpopular tax in the City of Brotherly Love. A Philadelphia ShopRite convenience store will close, with the owner citing lost business related to the city's soda tax as the primary reason for its closure. The store is located near Philadelphia's city limits, where local residents appear to have taken a good portion of their business across the border to avoid...
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Philadelphia's soda tax upheld by state Supreme Court
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6abc.com (WPVI-TV) ^
| July 18, 2018 | Gray Hall
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WPVI) -- Pennsylvania's highest court is upholding Philadelphia's tax on sweetened drinks, rejecting a challenge to the soda tax by merchants and the beverage industry. The
Supreme Court ruled Wednesday the 1.5-cent-per-ounce levy is aimed at distributors and dealer-level transactions and does not illegally duplicate another existing tax.
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California bans local soda taxes
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Los Angeles Times ^
| 29 Jun 18 | Liam Dillon
California cities and counties won’t be allowed to tax soda for the next 12 years after Gov. Jerry Brown signed fast-moving legislation Thursday. The bill, which was first unveiled Saturday evening, prohibits local governments from imposing new taxes on soda until 2031. It
comes after a deal was struck between legislators and business and labor interests who agreed to remove an initiative from the Nov. 6 statewide ballot that would have restricted cities and counties from raising any taxes without a supermajority vote of local citizens.
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Why soda taxes don't work
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The Washington Times ^
| June 24, 2018 | Adam Brandon
Time and again we hear politicians from different parts of the country profess the virtues of a soda tax. Their
reasoning ranges from wanting to improve the public health, by cutting back consumption of unhealthy drinks, to talking about how much revenue it will bring in. This proclivity of nanny statists to push policies to change people’s behavior hues quite closely to Einstein’s definition of insanity: Trying the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Policy makers of all stripes need to abandon their affinity for soda taxes. Put simply, soda taxes just don’t work. Take Berkeley, California, as...
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Seattle Soda Tax Not Doing Too Well
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The WasteWatcher (Citizens Against Government Waste) ^
| January 11, 2018 | Spencer Chretien
While the rest of us were popping champagne to celebrate the arrival of 2018, Seattle greeted the New Year with a 1.75 cent per ounce tax on sweetened beverages. It
was needed, former Mayor Ed Murray once said, for a host of noble reasons: to reduce sugar consumption; to raise revenue for important projects like a year of “free” community college for all graduating public high school students; and, to subsidize purchases of healthy foods by low-income families.Before he resigned in disgrace over multiple allegations of personal misconduct, Murray considered the soda tax one of his greatest accomplishments, a “cutting...
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That new soda tax in Seattle is working out about as well as Chicago’s
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Hot Air ^
| January 10,2017 | Jazz Shaw
As noted in the article, in one of the more creative and admirable moves by a retail chain in recent memory, Costco took to changing their price signs, showing how much the beverages should cost, and then tacking on the new tax as a separate line item. The
city government appears to have been caught totally off guard by the visceral response from consumers. The majority opinion out on the streets seems to be that shoppers will be heading outside the city to shop. And considering the fact that a case of soda has now increased in price by enough...
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State senator wants lawmakers to weigh in on statewide soda tax
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kob4 ^
| Dec. 28, 2017 | Marian Camacho
New Mexico Democratic Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino has introduced a joint memorial, asking the Legislative Finance Committee to study the potential positives and negatives of a statewide tax on sodas and other sugary drinks. Governor
Susana Martinez weighed in on the idea Wednesday, posting her thoughts on Facebook. “Liberal Democrats are pushing a soda tax again…Less than a year after voters in the state’s most liberal city easily rejected a tax on soda, Senate Democrats want to raise taxes on soda statewide. No matter the budget situation, Senate Democrats have tried to raise taxes every year since I’ve been...
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Joe Maddon tossed, likens home plate collision rule to Chicago's 'soda tax'
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espn ^
| 10/14/2017 | Jesse Rogers
Charlie Culberson tried to score from second on a single by Justin Turner and was initially called out by umpire Mike Winters for not touching home plate after evading Willson Contreras' tag. The
Dodgers challenged the call, and after a video review, it was determined that Contreras blocked the plate before he received the ball. The interpretation of the rule infuriated Maddon. The Dodgers challenged on the grounds Contreras broke rule 7.13, which states "unless the catcher is in possession of the ball, the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score. If, in...
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The Soda Tax: A Single Victory or a Blueprint for the Future?
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Illinois Review ^
| October 13, 2017 A.D. | John F. Di Leo
In November, 2016, the Cook County Board of Confiscators created a new tax on most non-alcoholic beverages – punitive, astronomical, and unconstitutional. Virtually
everything that could be wrong with a government policy was wrong with this one, and the community reacted with unexpected force. County commissioners reported receiving more complaints about this issue than on any other issue in their careers. Despite a united front held by County Board President Toni Preckwinkle through the summer 2017 implementation, the resolve of her members soon withered as the real effects of the hated tax began to be felt. In the end, it...
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Chicago's soda tax fizzled after 2 months. What does it mean for the anti-soda movement?
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Chicago Daily Herald ^
| October 11, 2017
Less than two months after the country's largest soda tax went into effect, embattled lawmakers in Cook County are already poised to repeal it. The
tax has been plagued, in its very short life, by legal challenges, implementation glitches and a screeching, multimillion-dollar media battle between the soda industry and public health groups. On Tuesday, in recognition of growing public pressure, Cook County's Board of Commissioners is expected to vote to roll back the tax, effective as soon as Dec. 1. Several Cook County commissioners who switched their votes in favor of repeal have cited outrage. "I listened to the...
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Chicago’s Awesome New Soda Tax Produces Predicted Results: Lower Sales, Lost Jobs, Angry People
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Hotair ^
| 09/23/2017 | Jazz Shaw
Last month we looked at the state of the Cook County, Illinois soda tax, passed into law in December of last year. They
had barely gotten the sin tax (which affects Chicago primarily) into motion before realizing that it probably violates the state constitution. They have a workaround in progress which seems dodgy enough as it is, and for the time being they are collecting it. The county executives insisted that it would work out for the best, improving everyone’s health and raising tons of money.Long before it went to effect we were warning the county that this experiment...
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USDA Says Chicago Soda Tax Puts $87M In Federal Food Stamp Funding At Risk
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Consumerist ^
| August 14, 2017
A controversial tax on sweetened beverages in Chicago is putting the entire state of Illinois at risk for losing millions in federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly referred to as food stamps), according to a warning sent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to state regulators. Federal
law prohibits states from collecting taxes on any SNAP-eligible grocery items, but Cook County, IL — which includes all of the city of Chicago — recently began adding a $.01 per ounce tax on most sweetened beverages. Some retailers are able to automatically remove the soda tax on SNAP...
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Democrats worry about political fallout from county soda pop tax
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Chicago Tribune ^
| August 11, 2017 | by Rick Pearson and Hal Dardick
Concern about the political effects of a deeply unpopular county pop tax — on top of recent state and city tax increases — on Thursday hung over the first day of Cook County Democrats' endorsement session for next year's primary election. Northwest
Side Ald. Nicholas Sposato, 38th, said he expects some backlash against the pop tax "down the road in the election next year." People complaining to him about the tax "are blaming the Democrats," he said, adding that the income tax increase would compound the problem. Democrats last month overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of a state income tax...
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Study: Philadelphia Tax Makes Soda More Expensive Than Beer
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Free Beacon ^
| August 8, 2017 | Elizabeth Harrington
Philadelphia's tax on sugary drinks has made soda more expensive than beer in the city. The
Tax Foundation released a new study on the excise tax last week, finding that the 1.5-cent per ounce tax has fallen short of revenue projections, cost jobs, and has forced some Philadelphians to drive outside the city to buy groceries.
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Judge Lifts Injunction Blocking Cook County Soda Tax
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CBS 2 CHICAGO ^
| 28 JULY 2017 | CBS 2 CHICAGO
CHICAGO (CBS) — A judge has lifted an injunction on Cook County’s sweetened beverage tax, allowing the county to begin collecting the penny-per-ounce tax. The
tax is expected to be collected beginning next Wednesday, barring surprises or another legal challenge. Cook County Circuit Judge Daniel Kubasiak had blocked the tax on June 30, one day before it was to go into effect, after opponents filed a lawsuit claiming the tax is unconstitutionally vague, and isn’t applied uniformly to the same drinks.
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Soda taxes popping up around the U.S.
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Chicago Sun-Times ^
| July 23, 2017
While Cook County battles in court to impose a tax on sweetened beverages, so-called soda taxes are popping up across the country. Cook
County would be the biggest place to impose the tax, following in the footsteps of Albany, Berkeley and Oakland in California, Philadelphia, and Boulder, Colorado. San Francisco and Seattle are set to begin taxing sweetened beverages on Jan. 1, 2018.
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Burdens of Taxation? Cook County's New Soda Tax Just a Drop in the Bucket
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Illinois Review ^
| June 28, 2017 AD | John F Di Leo
On July 1 – barring a court order or a last minute act of legislative wisdom or fear (at this point, we’ll take either) – Cook County will implement a “Soda Tax,” a brand new penny-per-ounce beverage tax on non-alcoholic drinks that exceed certain threshold of either regular or diet sweeteners. It
will capture virtually all regular and diet soda pop, most juice drinks, and either many or most other flavored drinks, such as sport drinks, frappucinos, sweetened or diet iced teas, lemonade, etc. Much has been said and written about the outlandish nature of this tax. Charged in addition...
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Cook County, A Soda Tax, and the Death of an Economy
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Illinois Review ^
| June 26, 2017 A.D. | John F Di Leo
Contemplations on the new Cook County Soda Tax... Cook County, Illinois - the home of America’s fourth largest city - Chicago, is, like many metro areas, broke. So,
as many jurisdictions do when broke, they imagine a need to raise tax rates. The one they have chosen for July 1, 2017 is a soda tax, in addition to any applicable sales tax, which in Illinois can be as high as ten percent ad valorem already. This new “soda tax” is not just on soda, but on any beverage that is sweetened with either sugar or artificial sweetener (so it applies...
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Philly’s Soda Tax Is Shaping Up to Be an Epic Flop
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Philadelphia Magazine ^
| 06/13/2017 | ERNEST OWENS
It’s been six months since the city’s soda tax (or, more accurately, the sugary beverage tax) was implemented — and it’s off to a rocky start. The
city is currently $20 million short of its projected $46 million goal to close out the 2017 fiscal year, and based on the most available month’s numbers, it doesn’t appear as though they will reach it. But I’m not surprised by any of this. By the time last June when Mayor Kenney pulled a fast one on City Council to strike the deal, I had already warned about the consequences in lower-income communities.
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