A Guest Post by Erik Braunitzer
The economic downturn has hit many areas hard, including California. CA officials continue to have political debates on how to fix the deficit. One proposed “solution” suggests that we implement a food and beverage tax that would charge one penny per ounce of sugar which would potentially increase the total cost of some products, such as soda, by as much as 50 percent. We recognize the need to balance the budget, but taxing the hardworking citizens of the state is not a solution. In fact, it will cause more burden for families and businesses already struggling to make ends meet. Additionally, it will put thousands of Californian jobs at risk.
This is also true in NY State – “Whatever revenue might be generated from this tax could potentially be offset by 6000 jobs being lost in this state. We can’t let that happen.” – Senator David J. Valesky.
The biggest argument that proponents of the tax have brought to the table is that a food and beverage tax will help curb childhood obesity. In reality, punitive taxes on food and beverages do not teach our children the importance of a good diet or how to live a healthy lifestyle – therefore doing little to improve public health. Comprehensive education, not taxation, is the key to improving public health.
Putting thousands of food and beverage industry jobs at risk and raising taxes on the products that hard working families enjoy is the wrong approach to fix these states’ economic problems. Join over 3,000 other Californians by signing our petition and telling Sacramento you oppose the food and beverage tax.
I think a tax on soda would be a good thing if it is high enough to produce a drop in demand.
I know that my dentists also made less money off of me because I followed his advise and reduced my soda intake to near zero. If he was correct and I had continued to drink 6-10 Pepsi’s a day then I would have no teeth.
My husbands coke a cola habit almost killed him as he became diabetic while drinking 10-15 cokes a day.
It would be a good preventative health measure to discourage the overuse of soda’s and high fat foods. Currently the expected live span of our youth has dropped below the expected life span of their parents, because of issues of being overweight.
Good fresh food should be served in schools not some of the stuff that many places have now. Use the money raised with these taxes to help pay for good food for kids, education and exercise programs.
Perhaps even part of the revenue could be used to cut taxes in other areas.
When you dig a little deeper you see that we’re already taxed to subsidize farmers who grow corn that is then made into cheap corn syrup (fructose) that’s added to almost all processed foods. Stop the subsidy and the market will take care of increasing the price of these sugary foods – requiring less taxes (of course they’ll be used for something else) and not more taxes.
Ha! That is NOT what this website expected. Good for you guys!