Council decides not to vote on sweet-drink tax

Philadelphia's proposed tax on sugared beverages is as flat as a bottle of Coke opened a week ago, but its backers say it's just a matter of time before the idea becomes reality somewhere.

But it's unlikely to happen soon in Philadelphia. City Council on Thursday decided not to vote on Mayor Nutter's proposal to tax soda and other drinks with added sugar.

"Today the big soda lobby won and average Philadelphians lost," Nutter said. "A tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would have been a way to both provide the city with much-needed revenue and improve the health of residents."

A similar plan died in Baltimore this week, and efforts to pass such taxes also faltered in Washington, and New York state, although the governor there is trying to resurrect the idea.

Legislators in California are still pushing for such taxes, and whether or not they pass, both sides are girding for a battle that could last for years.

On one side are health advocates who say sugared beverages have expanded Americans' waistlines and offered no nutritional benefits. On the other side is the industry, which has spent millions fighting efforts to tax sugar-sweetened beverages.

Council's decision was a blow to Nutter, who had made the tax a centerpiece of his administration's efforts to reduce childhood obesity. In Philadelphia's poorest neighborhoods, 70 percent of children are obese or overweight, according to city data.

In Philadelphia, the beverage industry spent big on newspaper, radio, and other ads.

Nutter said he was not done fighting and opponents were braced for further debate.

"I would not put it past Michael to bring it back in some fashion between now and June 30," said Danny Grace, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 830. "It will be a long-term battle that we will continue to have disagreements on until the economy comes back."

Nutter said his efforts had raised awareness of research linking consumption of sugared beverages with obesity. As a councilman, Nutter pushed for years before finally getting legislation passed that banned smoking in bars and restaurants, a law now common in many cities.

Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity and an advocate of taxing sugar-sweetened beverages, said the idea would gain currency as public understanding of the connection between soda and obesity grew.

"Even if the Philadelphia proposal dies, I'm not the least bit discouraged, because it will come up again," Brownell said.

He likened the battle to the one over tobacco taxes, which took decades to become common and faced bitter opposition from industry.

The beverage industry calls the comparisons to tobacco unfair.

"You can't put soda in even the same universe as tobacco. Tobacco kills. You can be a healthy person and enjoy a soft drink, and people get that," said Kevin Keane, senior vice president of public affairs for the American Beverage Association.

He also said the public didn't buy the argument that such taxes would be used to fight obesity and instead saw them as ways for government officials to close their budget gaps.

He could not say how much the beverage industry had spent battling these taxes nationwide but noted that the association had doled out $18 million to lobbyists last year to fend off a proposal to tax sugared beverages to pay for health-care reform.

Harold Goldstein, head of the nonpartisan California Center for Public Health Advocacy, which supports the tax there, said budget problems could increase the chances of its passage.

Kenneth Warner, dean of the University of Michigan's School of Public Health, said he saw public perception about the impact of drinking sweet beverages on health shifting, just as it did with tobacco over many years. Decades ago, smoking was considered cool.

"I think we're at the very beginning of an era, if you will," he said. "There is a similar message to be had here, that you can do something about the obesity epidemic, but you have to fight the beverage industry."

With the sweet-drinks tax dead in Philadelphia, social-service providers and others here were quick to ask whether the beverage industry would make good on its offer to fund $10 million in healthy eating and recreation programs over the next two years. Harold Honickman, chairman of Canada Dry Delaware Valley Bottling in Pennsauken, a Philadelphian, said he met this week with officials from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to hear about their widely praised healthy-eating programs.

"We are continuing to have discussions with potential partners in regard to this initiative and we would like to work out a program," said Larry Ceisler, spokesman for the coalition of bottlers, Teamsters, storeowners, and restaurateurs who opposed the tax.

Blondell Reynolds Brown, Council's most vocal champion of the soda tax, said its defeat was not a complete loss for the issue of childhood obesity.

"The upside of this is the awareness has grown exponentially," Brown said.

Some, including Nutter, have questioned the propriety of the industry's cash pledge. But Brown said she was not offended by the industry's $10 million alternative and would make sure it followed through. "It behooves us to seize that opportunity," Brown said. "So if they're making an offer, let's jump on it."

Council members said the offer did not affect their vote. From the beginning, even Nutter allies have questioned whether an anti-obesity campaign should be linked with raising revenue. Others regarded it as a headline-grabber for the mayor, a sure ticket to CNN. It appeared that he never had more than eight votes at most for the tax, when he needed nine. His most reliable friends on Council, Frank DiCicco, W. Wilson Goode Jr., and James F. Kenney, could not be swayed to vote for it.