A tax on sugary drinks on Thursday in the beach community in Santa Cruz, seven years after California banned its cities and provinces, enforcing local grocery taxes as part of a hesitant deal with strong drinks industry.
A 2 -cents tax per ounce, which voters approved in November, is the first in the state since the legislators approved2018 deal. The American Drinks Association has dramatically spent the campaign against the polling management in the 60,000 small city, and in the court it described illegal taxes and is likely to abide by the city’s resources.
Santa Cruz officials are preparing to challenge the state’s law in the court, and despite the uncertainty, I hope that their new tax will stimulate work on other countries and cities. This measure aims to reduce sugar consumption, especially among children and adolescents, and collect funds for health programs and other societal initiatives.
“It is a matter of democracy and standing on private interests,” said Cherbier Caltenary-Johnson, Vice-President of the Santa Cruz City Council. “It comes to the independence of revenue for our society.”
The Trade Organization representscoca colaand Pepsico Others said in a statement on Wednesday that he was holding the next steps.
Stephen Mavilio, a spokesman for the American Drinks Association, said the tax is opposed by a wide alliance, including trade unions and small companies, “as an unfair burden on working families that are struggling with record prices.”
Health defenders are fighting for more than a decade to impose taxes on sugar -sweetened drinks, saying that high prices would curb the consumption of a product that increases the risk of obesity, heart disease and stroke. The opponents say that the retrospective tax is not proportional to the low -income families that they cannot afford and harm local companies.
Berkeley, a city close to Santa Cruz, in 2014, has won the country’s first tax to be specifically designed with sugar -sweetened drinks. I followed a handful of other cities, including nearSan Francisco, Oakland and AlbaniBesidesPhiladelphia; Seattle and Bolder, Colorado.
No country agreed to the state -level drinking tax, thoughSome have tried.
In 2018, California lawmakers reluctantly passed the Keep Active Accord Law,Local taxes on sodaAnd other sugary drinks until 2031. In contrast, the California invitation group is a round table for businessWithdrawal of the polls supported by the beverage industryIt would have made it difficult for cities and provinces to increase any taxes.
The deal forced Santa Cruz to abandon its plans to bring the sugary drink tax to vote. But the city leaders did not give up.
In the same year, a lawsuit against the city council member and the health advocacy filed a non -profit organization, on the pretext that providing the penalty in the grocery law targets illegally targeted cities from exercising their authority over local affairs. Under the law, a rented city that follows a local tax on desalinated drinks can be punished by losing sales tax revenue.
However, in 2023, the Governmental Appeals Court canceled the sentence as a unconstitutional, but it did not judge the same. In June, the Santa Cruz City Council set a tax measure on the poll and in November, approximately 32,000 voters agreed on the margin of 52 to 48.
The “no” side spent $ 2.8 million; The “Yes” side spent less than $ 100,000.
A 2 -cents tax applies to each ounce to soft drinks, ice tea, sports drinks, and any other non -alcoholic drinks containing the added calories and has 40 calories or more per 12 ounces of fluids. There is an exemption for small companies less than $ 500,000 in total receipts per year.
Kareena Moreno opposed the tax measure and said she would have to raise prices in her restaurant, Takos Moreno.
“I was really disappointed when I heard it passed,” she said in an email. “We are already paying high prices for sugar drinks.”
But tax defenders say Santa Cruz’s victory is amazing, given the amount of money spent by the opposition.
Dr. John, a surgeon in San Francisco and Chairman of the Consulting Committee of the American Heart Association in California, said that the future of sugary drinks tax may lie in smaller societies where advocates can mobilize support at the base level.
“This is a great week for the Soda Tax Movement,” he said.
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
https://fortune.com/img-assets/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/GettyImages-2185844029-e1746088828515.jpg?resize=1200,600
Source link