Soda Tax in California
The issue of soda tax, or the implementation of rules that guide the soft drinks industry in terms of guiding the consumer on the content of the soda which often is at the expense of the manufacturer, is not new to California. New York City had a similar bill that was passed but later on shelved due to a court ruling that favored the soft drinks manufacturers who pressed for a ruling out of the directive as unconstitutional. There were three consecutive appeals that failed hence the hopes for that regulation that banned sale of big size bottles of soda among other regulations seem to fizzle out flat (Matias C., 2014).
It is the same spirit as that of Bloomberg in New York that state senator Bill Monning has put forth a proposal that would require the sugary drinks for instance the sports drinks that are sugary, sodas, fruits drinks among others to prominently display the labels warning the consumers of the possible health risks that they were predisposing themselves to by consuming that drink which has added sugar. Upon implantation, California will be the first state to ever pass and implement this law in the entire U.S. since New York was unable to implement the similar legislation due to the court battles that saw it thrown out.
Essentially, the bill will not cost the tax payer any money hence it will be a tax on the beverage companies since they would be responsible for printing the label on the bottles and cans or any other packaging material that they will be using to distribute the drinks with added sugar. The basic argument for the proposition of the bill and the accompanying support from various quarters in the Californian community is that the added sugar in the sodas are largely responsible for causing health risks and diseases like diabetes and obesity among others. These are diseases that costs the state and the federal government a lot of money to deal with hence the printing of the information warning of the health risks as well as the content of the bottle will help sensitize the consumers and once they are aware, there will be a reduction of the number of people drinking these soft drinks and the regulation of the amount that they will be drinking, hence the lowering of possible health risks and diseases and factually lowering the extended cost of care to the federal govern (Sterten R., 2014). Monning notes that there are more that 40% of the children and more than 60% of the adults in California who are overweight, and tied to this is the 43% of the added calories in American diet originating from sugary drinks. California Center for Public Health Advocacy indicates that there is an increase of the chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes in California. These health cases costs the state a whole $41 billion annually. Further, the World Health Organization came up with findings which stated that drinking a bottle of soda a day will significantly increase by 27% the consumer's likelihood of being overweight for the adults and by 55% if the consumer is a child.
It is significant to note that this is not the first time that Monning, a renowned health advocate for a long time, is putting forth a control proposal on the sodas. In 2013, there was a similar attempt to have a legislation that would see the sugary drinks take up a 1-cent-per-ounce tax. This was also meant to control the amount of ounces of sugar that went into the sodas and other soft drinks. That legislation, despite being well drafted and having the support of many civil education campaigners, it stalled dead at the committee stage in the legislature (McGreevy P., 2013).
Just before this above attempt by Monning that failed, there was yet another attempted regulation of the sugary beverage industry in 2012 within California. This involved the cities of El Monte and Richmond who voted on whether or not to impose a tax on the sugary beverages, both cities voted against the idea of imposing this particular tax. In early November 2014, the cities of San Francisco and Berkeley also voted for the proposed special tax of a penny-per-ounce on the sugar sweetened beverages including the energy drinks and sodas and juices. Voters in San Francisco once more shot down this proposal by failing to raise the required two-thirds support for the proposition. However, things looked different in Berkeley with a convincing passing of the proposal hence being the first U.S. city to pas such a measure against the soft drinks, the implementation and the subsequent possible legal battles are yet to be seen. The soft drinks companies like the Coca-cola Co., PepsiCo Inc., DrPepper Snapple Group Inc. have spent well over $100 million in defeating legislations such...
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