Letters: Soda tax - For the kids, or a cash grab?

ISSUE | SODA TAX

Kenney's sleight of hand

Mayor Kenney was very clever about the sugary-beverage tax ("New soda tax plan: 11/2 cents," Thursday).

First, more than half of its revenue was earmarked for prekindergarten. What politician would go on record opposing that?

Second, it was to be a tax on sugary drinks, so it could be an inducement to improved health. Now the tax will be levied on diet drinks as well.

Third, since the tax will be charged to distributors, consumers and store owners would be spared.

And lastly, by dropping the original proposal from 3 cents an ounce to

11/2 cents, the mayor looks reasonable. Except the two-liter bottle of diet soda on sale for 88 cents will cost $1.89.

Only in a city run by Democrats would this measure be deemed good governance. I hope it goes into effect before the Democratic National Convention convenes here next month. Maybe the delegates will wonder why soft drinks cost so much in Philly.

|Kevin Mcgonigal, Moorestown, kevikens@hotmail.com

Clarke led the way

We are impressed and pleased that Council President Darrell L. Clarke and his colleagues found consensus for a viable plan that will enable the city to enroll an additional 6,500 children in pre-K over the next five years. It will also responsibly cover the debt costs associated with $300 million in improvement to recreation centers, parks, and libraries. On top of that, the package will add $14 million to the operating budgets of the Parks and Recreation Department.

In addition to the great policy objectives of this package, last week's historic vote in Council was a testament to Clarke's leadership. Throughout this process, Clarke and Council members demonstrated a level of consideration and deliberation worthy of the respect of every businessperson and resident of the city. They showed an unwavering commitment to improving the lives of residents.

|Donna Cooper, executive director, Public Citizens for Children and Youth, and Steven Scott Bradley, chairman, African American Chamber of Commerce of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, donnac@pccy.org

Skirting fiscal woes

Masquerading under the banner of advocating public health, Philadelphia politicians have chosen not to confront the issues that have created the city's financial imbalance, such as runaway pension liabilities and windfalls from the Deferred Retirement Option Plan (DROP).

They have taken the easy way out - beating up a kid who wants a bottle of Gatorade after playing basketball.

|Lee B. O'Dea, Rydal

Politics as usual

A healthy amount of the soda tax is really going to be spent by Mayor Kenney and City Council on things other than the programs the mayor promised. It turns out that the mayor - not the soda companies - was the real villain in this morality play. It just goes to show - you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can fool Philadelphians all of the time.

|Fran Steffler, Philadelphia

Revenue for the kids, or a cash grab?

City Council members are justifiably upset with the Kenney administration for failing to inform them until the last minute that a significant portion of revenue from the soda tax would be diverted to the city's sagging fund balance and other previously undisclosed programs.

Several Council members told me that the first they'd heard of the mayor's commitment of $41 million in soda-tax revenue for the fund balance was just a few hours before they voted on the controversial tax on June 8.

Can there be any doubt that the Kenney administration played a game of bait-and-switch with Council? Was this ever really all about the kids, or was it just a cash grab from one industry?

Council members would be wise to ask themselves that question before Thursday's final vote on the soda tax.

|Daniel H. Grace, secretary-treasurer, Teamsters Local 830, Philadelphia, dgrace@team830.org

A revolutionary concept

When developing a plan to finance the new Republic in 1789, Alexander Hamilton proposed buttressing customs revenue with taxes on wine, spirits, tea, and coffee, "all of them in reality luxuries, the greater part of them foreign luxuries; some of them, in the excess in which they are used, pernicious luxuries."

Hamilton would have approved of the soda tax.

|Chuck Durante, Wilmington

Taxes on top of taxes

The sugary-drink tax is a done deal. It will be added to the $2-per-pack tax on cigarettes that hurts city businesses. And City Council is considering a 0.1 percent increase in the real estate transfer tax for home-repair programs. Then there's the

$5.7 billion deficit in the pension fund without money set aside to deal with it..

There's no end in sight to increased taxes.

|Matthew Augustine, Philadelphia, mjmrex@aol.com

Another step closer to a nanny city

I stopped drinking soda years ago because of the sugar content, but that doesn't mean I support the soda tax. What I feared most from this type of tax was the slippery slope to where government would decide what type of food or drink citizens should consume.

The sugary-beverage tax has expanded to diet drinks, confirming that my fear was valid ("Diet add-on easy for some to swallow," June 11). Diet soda does not contain sugar, so why include it?

City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley wants people to switch from soda to water. But I don't like tap or bottled water - that's why I drink low- or no-calorie beverages. He and people like him are interfering with my right to make informed decisions and to control my choices, and they will make me spend more money.

The slippery slope has suddenly gotten steeper. Where will it end, and will adults be forced to pay more and more taxes and be banned from eating and drinking certain foods and beverages?

|Joyce Brown-Stone, Philadelphia