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Council Continues to Debate Schools Funding, Soda Opponents Set To Rally Tomorrow

    by Catherine Lucey
    Published 

Time is running out for City Council to decide on whether to provide more revenues for the cash-poor school district. As they continue to debate whether to enact a soda tax to raise money, opponents are planning a rally for tomorrow.

Here's the release:

PHILLY JOBS, NOT TAXES COALITION TO HOST MAJOR CITY HALL RALLY TUESDAY TO ASSAIL NUTTER ADMINISTRATION'S SUGAR-SWEETENED BEVERAGE TAX

WHO: Philly Jobs, Not Taxes, a broad-based coalition of small business owners, labor unions, beverage industry workers, and concerned Philadelphia citizens. Teamster union members from New York and Baltimore also are attending the rally to support their Philadelphia brothers and sisters, who stand to lose as many as 1,000 jobs if the Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax is enacted. City Council members Jannie Blackwell, Maria Quinines-Sanchez, Brian O'Neill and Bill Green; former City Controller Jonathan Saidel; and Teamsters Local 830 Secretary/Treasurer Danny Grace are just a few of the featured speakers. More than 300 people are expected to attend the rally.

WHAT: A major rally to protest the Nutter Administration's controversial Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax which, if passed into law, would add a two cents per ounce tax on all sugary drinks sold in Philadelphia, including sodas, iced teas, sports drinks, flavored water, etc. The tax would double the cost of sugar-sweetened beverages in the city.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 14th at 12 noon.

WHERE: Northwest corner of City Hall, intersection of Broad Street and JFK Blvd.

VISUALS: More than 20 large tractor-trailers driven by Teamster union members will circle City Hall throughout the rally, blasting their air horns to serve notice to Mayor Nutter that a Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax in any form is a job-killer.