In a preview of the looming battle over Initiative 1107 here in Washington state, New York Gov. David Patterson has dropped his proposed penny-an-ounce tax on soda and other sweetened drinks in the face of a relentless, multi-million dollar ad campaign from, you guessed it, I-1107’s sponsor, the American Beverage Association. The NY tax would have raised about $1 billion over two years to offset cuts in health care.
“The beverage industry takes the position that you can’t allow this to happen anywhere at any time, based on the slippery-slope theory,” Michael A. Nutter, Philadelphia’s mayor, who has proposed a 2-cents-an-ounce tax, said this week. “They’re successful the old-fashioned way. They pay for it.”
Of course, the industry won’t be able to run quite the same sort of ads here in WA; at only two-cents per 12 ounce serving, our tax is a mere one-sixth that proposed in NY — and only applies to bottled water and carbonated beverages, not fruit juices and other sweetened beverages — so it really would amount to only pennies a day for all but the most profligate soda drinkers. Still, expect the attitude to be the same, and to loudly attack “wasteful spending” in Olympia.
But don’t be deceived. This is all about protecting beverage industry profits, not the health or welfare of Washington citizens. The American Beverage Association is fighting similar proposals in a dozen states, and Washington is just one more line in the sand, much in the same way that the plastic bag industry spent millions to defeat Seattle’s proposed bag ban in an effort to stop or slow similar bans elsewhere.
Soda giants like Coke and Pepsi have already pumped $2.5 million into their I-1107 campaign, but with more at stake than just the WA tax, we can expect several million dollars more between now an November. In the face of such an intense media campaign, it remains to be seen whether WA voters will be willing to stand up to such powerful out-of-state interests, when NY politicians clearly weren’t.
Uh if people want to protect their health, stop buying soda. Water is very cheap if you drink it filtered tap. Once again, nanny state to the rescue!
Don’t blame the beverage companies, they’re just doing what the corn tells them to do.
Maybe we’d have more cash to go around if the federal government weren’t giving handouts to the corn and processed foods lobbies like they are candy.
1:
I’m not going to pick on you too much this time around Crusader. Basically this is just another sin tax, and I’ve never anyone from your side complain too strenuously about sin taxes. Even with as much Coke as I drink some days (driving 15 hours between Port Angeles and Reno/Carson/Tahoe for gigs, I’ll polish off two 64oz. mugfuls, actually about 96oz. total after you subtract the ice) I don’t see that much of a problem with what’s a comparatively minor tax raise compared to what New York was considering.
But your opening statement was really good. Though I’d also suggest switching to sodas that aren’t made with high-fructose corn syrup, like Jones Soda (just not their Thanksgiving soda – ack!). And nowadays, you can actually buy your own soda kits – Central Markets sell them for around $90 – 120, for example.
Michael hits another good point with #3. Farm subsidies need to really be looked at carefully, and revamped so that the money goes to those who truly need it (family farmers) rather than corporations. And restricting the use of high-fructose corn syrup would be even better. It’s in just about everything these days, and it’s no coincidence that since HFCS was introduced and spread, rates of diabetes have followed almost identically. IIRC didn’t someone on HA actually post a chart showing just that?
Glad to have signed it. Screw Governor Sea-Hag and her cronies and their fiscal train wreck! Good day all.
@4 Actually, Jones pulled a sort of a fast one, and judging from their recent tribulations many consumers got wise to it. While their advertising screams about their products are “made from cane sugar”, if you read the ingredients list you’ll find the primary sweetener is “invert cane suger”–sucrose that’s been chemically converted into glucose or fructose.
If you want to drink pop that’s really sweetened with cane sucrose, you can go with Mexican Coke (available at Costco and elsewhere), Blue Sky Soda (from the PCC and other places), or my current favorite, San Pellegrino Limonata and Aranciata (lemon and orange sodas) which are cane-sweetened, but have a somewhat lower sugar content and cost only 53 cents a can bought by the case from Costco.
And as to what the big deal is with fructose…my wife’s a Diabetes Educator, and she recently read a study showing that it isn’t just that it goes into your bloodstream faster because it’s a simpler molecule. Since it’s even simpler than glucose (a ring of five carbon atoms instead of six) your body can’t metabolize it into anything it really needs, so it’s treated like ethanol and processed in the liver directly into triglycerides…which in turn become cholesterol.
@2 – good one!
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C’mon, Goldy. It’s NY state for god’s sake.
Personally I’m looking forward to the influx of cash they seem to be willing to waste protecting their interests. Kind of like the pro-HFCS ads now playing…where the actors can’t think of anything bad about HFCS in your food and drinks. How about it tastes like corn syrup?!
Here is the awful truth about fructose, from a UCSF endocrinologist, Robert Lustig.
It’s 1.5 hours long, but he’s a great speaker and conveys a huge amount of info – all of it very damning about fructose.
Fructose is indeed a five carbon sugar, and glucose a six. Sucrose, or table sugar is a dimer of a glucose and a fructose. Therefore, there’s as much fructose in table sugar, or cane sugar, as there is in high-fructose corn syrup (typically 45-50% fructose, the rest glucose) – it’s all poison in the amounts a typical American ingests.
A fizzy corn syrup in plastic bottles (that rots your teeth and makes you fat) is hardly a staple food item for working families. “Thanks, Drew.”
@9
Yea, if people don’t like the taxes on sugar water and junk food don’t buy the stuff. It is just like tobacco and liquor taxes.
If your family is “struggling” then try drinking water rather than soda or sweetened juice.
Frankly I think anything with HFCS should be taxed at a rate no less than 100% of the retail price.
Drink Brawndo! The Thirst Mutilator!
“Brawndo’s got what plants crave. It’s got electrolytes.”
@6
Costco blew a hole in my food budget when they started carrying San Pellegrino and Mexican Coke.
I’ll be voting yes on I-1107. Singling out “sinful” foods and taxing them is stupid. There’s no reason to tax soda if we’re not also going to tax fruit juice – they’re both essentially sugar water. The New York proposal is at least consistent!
6:
At least it’s not HFCS. And I love me some MexiCoke. It actually have a different flavor than AmeriCoke. Less of a bite to it. Now if it wasn’t $1.25 a bottle at WinCo……
How about we don’t tax beverages and tell the state to live within their means like everyone else?
@15
Everyone else is walking away from home loans and credit card debit that they ran up and couldn’t afford to pay off…
I am not, and I am currently unemployed…
I rarely drink any soda….for the reasons pointed out.
However, taxing it further to try and plus a deficit caused by overspending and pandering to the Unions is unacceptable.
Funny, the Unions & Teachers will be cheering for kids to drink more pop so they can get a raise.
One other thing–
The profit margin on all beverage’s (alcohol & non-alcohol) is huge.
Restaurant’s would be out of business without those sales.
As the rootless Atheist Progressives continue their march toward taxing us to fall into line with their non-thinking…we must reject any and all tax increases.
The ONLY way to reform government is to take away the money.
@19
so right; why should we educate our children, or have a criminal justice system anyway? Also businesses are always complaining that the work force is overeducated in WA.
You know it’s not as if the food industry is forcing people to eat carb-laden junk. You always have the option of eating healthy and drinking water. That you don’t – it’s your choice. Accept the consequences.
Great I didnt sign this one But I will without a doubt vote for this one..