Philly mayor proposing soda tax

[Depth]

Can't wait for the high fat tax to implemented on a pizza, burgers and hot dogs next. This is all getting a little too out of control, food and liquids are a necessity and the government has no business increasing prices on what they decide is the healthier or non-healthier choice.

Nutter proposes 2-cent-per-ounce sweet-drink tax | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/04/2010

Mayor Nutter wants to treat the city's weight and wallet problems in his 2010-11 budget with the same remedy: the nation's highest tax on all sweetened beverages including soda, energy drinks, ice tea, even chocolate milk.

Nutter's plan would put Philadelphia at the front of the movement to tax sweet drinks, an effort that the beverage industry already opposes and that could encounter resistance in City Council.

The tax rate would be 2 cents per ounce, 40 cents on a 20-ounce bottle of soda. The levy would cover fountain-drink syrups and powders, based on the number of liquid ounces they produce. Diet drinks without added sugar and baby formula would be excluded.

City officials said they could raise $77 million a year. Health Commissioner Donald F. Schwarz estimated that a typical city resident drinks a half-liter of sweet beverages a day.

[Kiddo716]

great, a tax on something that already has a tax attached to it.

[Joose]

This really is getting out of control.

[clmetal]

So I guess Hugs barrels will go from $.25 to $.27

He's also proposed to bill people $5 a week when they have their trash picked up.

[Ninja Realist]

This is a dumb law.

In theory the idea of taxing foods that are linked to obesity and expensive health conditions is perhaps admirable, but there are two huge problems with this law:

1) Not all people who eat shitty food are fat or even unhealthy. I eat crap all the time and am skinny as a rail. Lifestyle and genetics are equally important as diet.

2) Poor people eat the most shitty food. Bad food has more calories for less money, so those who have to feed a lot of people on a low budget often buy a lot of bad food. So this tax would fall most heavily on the backs of those least able to pay it.

[drstrangelovitz]

I really like the idea of the junk-food tax. I seriously doubt that it will radically reduce consumption of these goods, and even if it does, who cares? Something approaching a sin tax on junk food will at least place a greater stigma on people who consume it.

[clmetal]

I didn't realize it was $.02 per ounce when I posted earlier; that's $1.35 on a 2 litre bottle of soda. Philadelphia also has higher sales tax than the suburbs, so this will be a hit to all the grocery stores in the city; people will cars will probably buy soda outside city.

[USAMMAFAN]

Originally Posted by Joose

This really is getting out of control.

Chicago has had a soft drink tax forever.

Big deal.

[USAMMAFAN]

Originally Posted by drstrangelovitz

I really like the idea of the junk-food tax. I seriously doubt that it will radically reduce consumption of these goods, and even if it does, who cares? Something approaching a sin tax on junk food will at least place a greater stigma on people who consume it.

Chicago has had a soft drink tax forever, nobody in the city seems to care.

[Ninja Realist]

Originally Posted by clmetal

I didn't realize it was $.02 per ounce when I posted earlier; that's $1.35 on a 2 litre bottle of soda. Philadelphia also has higher sales tax than the suburbs, so this will be a hit to all the grocery stores in the city; people will cars will probably buy soda outside city.

Yet another way this tax is pointed at poor people.