The votes are in — soda is on its way out!
The assault on sugar continues, with several more cities approving measures to tax sugar-sweetened beverages. Much in the way that a combination of public awareness and heavy taxation was used to take on the tobacco industry, the same attention is being paid to soda — bad news for Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP) and others . . .
The trickle of soda taxes is becoming a stream.Voters in San Francisco, Oakland and nearby Albany Calif. approved Tuesday a penny-per-ounce levy on nonalcoholic drinks with caloric sweeteners affecting everything from cola to sports drinks and ice tea to energy drinks. In Boulder CO, residents approved a ballot measure calling for a tax of two cents per ounce.And the week isn’t over. Cook County’s board of commissioners—representing five million people in Chicago and surrounding suburbs—is expected to vote Thursday on a penny-per-ounce tax that also would include beverages with zero-calorie sweeteners like diet soda.The taxes pose a rising threat to beverage industry giants like Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. after they spent tens of millions of dollars in recent years successfully opposing them in dozens of cities and states.
Source: Soda Taxes Approved in Four Cities, Vote Looms in Chicago’s Cook County – WSJ
