WaPost: Soda Tax Is a Step in the Right Direction

So, the controversial “soda tax” passed the City Council on Thursday. Effective sometime in the near future, citizens in the City of Brotherly Love will pay a 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on all sugary beverages, including sodas, sweet teas, and sports drinks. While many municipalities (Philadelphia included) have tried and failed to institute similar levies in the past, Philadelphia becomes only the second city in the country – behind Berkley, California – to successfully implement a “sin tax” on soda and its ilk.

Soda is about to become more expensive in Philadelphia, but will that be enough to make residents healthier?

Part of the reason the tax was ultimately successful, says the Washington Post, is because it will channel money towards a popular cause – universal pre-K for Philadelphia children. It’s ironic that opponents of the soda tax argued that the poor would be hit hardest by the soda tax, since they consume the most sugary beverages, but the children of Philadelphia’s least-fortunate families will benefit the most from the universal pre-kindergarten that will come forth as a result of the levy. It remains to be seen whether the soda tax will ultimately decrease sugar consumption, or if people will simply adjust to higher prices, the way they have with tobacco products.

The Washington Post editorial argued that the soda tax was a step in the right direction but that, for public health purposes, more needs to be done. One in 11 Americans is already diabetic, and one in three could become diabetic in the next five years. With 35% of men and 40% of women in the United States already obese, the Post argues, we need to take stricter, more far-reaching measures against sugar. Perhaps the tax shouldn’t be just on sugary drinks, they argue, but on sugar itself as an ingredient. Statewide, or better still, nationwide laws would be more effective – as it stands right now, Philadelphians can simply drive over the bridge to New Jersey to get soda at a lower price.