SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – These days, it seems like every time you turn around, another state or federal official is espousing the view that a tax on soft drinks or French fries will solve the country’s obesity and budget problems. Calorie-laden foods and beverages are the new generation of “sin taxes,” QSR Magazine reports.
For example, Illinois recently approved an increase in the sales tax on soda with added sweetener or flavoring. The tax hike is projected to generate around $150 million annually for fixing roads and schools. Municipalities from Kingman, Ariz., to Haverhill, Mass., also are considering taxes on “unhealthful” foods.
Nationally, supporters are pushing a penny-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages, which could bring in $16 billion a year. On the opposite side, Americans Against Food Taxes, of which NACS is a member, has begun ad campaigns against such a tax. The group released two new ads this week that caution Washington policy-makers against raising grocery costs on middle-class families by taxing their juice drinks and soda, as well as demonstrating the strength of a diverse coalition concerned about a slippery slope once government reaches into the grocery cart with new taxes.
“Legislators in every jurisdiction are desperate for money,” said Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic Inc. “And they see this as an opportunity to raise revenue, cloaked in the guise of public welfare.”
While the idea of such food and beverage taxes has been floating around for years, the tightened state and federal budgets, need to fund the proposed healthcare reform, rising obesity rates and highly placed consumer advocates in the Obama administration have given this idea wings.