City Controller Butkovitz opposes soda tax
Monday, February 15th, 2010
A proposal to tax soda in Philadelphia might lose some of its fizz.
The idea would be to tax sodas in order to help shrink a projected budget gap for the next year.
Chicago has a similar tax. It's a three percent tax on sodas and juice drinks that contain less than half real fruit juice.
Alan Butkovitz is Philadelphia City Controller. He says in the Windy City, the tax doesn't bring in nearly the amount of money Philadelphia needs and would also require getting the legislature's approval.
Butkovitz: Philadelphia just went on this wild ride last year of having to ask the state to change the sales tax and it pushed us on the verge of bankruptcy of not being able to have the money to pay our bills. Under state law Philadelphia would have to ask permission for a soda tax. It's a bad idea after going through the experience so recently to go on that roller coaster ride again.
Philadelphia City officials aren't ready to comment about the issue. Mayor Michael Nutter is expected to propose his budget to City Council on March 4.
I’m not a soda drinker, but I’m against this tax. Not only will beverages such as Coke and Pepsi be taxed, but natural sodas such as Hansen’s and Blue Sky, along with fruit juices, and beverages that use cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup will also be taxed. Some drinks, such as cranberry juice and lemonade HAVE to be sweetened in order to be edible.
Diet beverages will not be taxed, so this is more of a sugar tax than a beverage tax. This sucks for me, as my body does not tolerate artifical sweetners (or MSG). Many people have sensitivites to chemical sweetners.
Also, there have been some articles recently that show diet beverages do little to reduce obesity, as people will think they can eat badly, or more because they aren’t getting calories from their beverages. Supposedly this is a tax that will make people healthier and less obeese. What good is a soda tax going to do for health, when someone opts to have water with their fried chicken and cheesesteak?
It’s also been a long-known fact that saccharin is linked to cancer in laboratory studies, and that aspartame is linked to problems with phenylketonuria.
This tax is nothing more than the city administration being money-grubbing to make up for the fact that it can’t manage funds properly. What Philly needs is an independent audit, rather than more taxes.