Soda Tax Will Include Diet Products Because Equity, Say Mayor and Councilmembers

[TexasTowelie]

Typically, diet sodas are marketed to upper-class consumers, while the poor drink sugar.

Today Mayor Ed Murray announced his revised proposal for a tax on sodas and other sugary beverages, which will now also apply to diet soda and similar drinks.

Like cigarette taxes, the soda tax is designed to discourage regular consumption of a product that causes obesity and a host of other health problems. A study of the effects of a similar soda tax in poor neighborhoods in Berkeley over one year found a significant decrease in pop consumption and increase in water consumption. The authors concluded that the tax reduced [sugar-sweetened beverages] consumption in low-income neighborhoods.”

From a public health perspective, this is a very good thing. But what about equity? Sugar (and high fructose corn syrup)-based sodas tend to be bought by poor people of color, while diet soda and similar products are typically slurped up by rich and middle-class white people (who already have reliable enough caloric intake that they can afford to spent money on fake sugar). To make sure that this soda tax targets both groups and not just the former—which would be super-duper regressive—the revised proposal also taxes diet beverages. As a consequence of this larger tax base, the proposed rate of taxation has been reduced from two cents per ounce to 1.75 cents per ounce.

The city Budget Office expects the tax to raise $23 million in its first year and less over time as consumers respond to higher prices by switching to non-taxed products like milk, pure juice, and unsweetened tea or coffee. Because no one knows how fast or slow that consumer shift will happen, the city is only counting on bringing in $18 million per year after the first year of taxation.

Read more: http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/soda-tax-will-include-diet-products-because-equity-say-mayor-and-councilmembers/#comments