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 The measure, to be signed by Mayor Ed Murray on Tuesday, was
approved on a 7-1 vote despite staunch opposition from the American
Beverage Administration, which said the tax would hit poor and
working-class families and small businesses hardest.
Enactment will add Washington state's largest city to a growing
national movement seeking to curb consumption of soft drinks and
other high-caloric beverages that medical experts say are largely to
blame for an epidemic of childhood obesity.
Other localities that have adopted similar measures during the past
few years include Philadelphia, San Francisco, its Bay-area
neighbors of Berkeley, Oakland and Albany, California, Boulder,
Colorado, and Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago.
A growing body of research has identified sugary drinks as the
biggest contributors to added, empty calories in the American diet,
and as a major culprit in a range of costly health problems
associated with being overweight.
Under the measure, due to go into effect in January, distributors of
all bottled and canned sodas, juice drinks, sports and energy
drinks, flavored waters, sweetened teas and ready-to-drink coffee
beverages sold in Seattle would pay a tax of 1.75 cents per ounce.
At that rate, the cost of a typical 12-ounce can of soda would rise
by 21 cents. An equivalent rate would be collected on the syrups
used to sweeten fountain drinks sold by restaurants, convenience
stores and fast-food outlets in the city.
As higher costs are passed on to consumers, supporters aim to put a
dent in sales, as was the case in Berkeley, where according to
public health officials retail purchases of sugar-sweetened
beverages dropped nearly 10 percent during the first year of that
city's soda tax.
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The new Seattle soda levy is projected to generate about $15 million
in revenue a year.
One-hundred-percent fruit juices and zero-calorie diet drinks are to
be exempted, along with dairy-based beverages.
But the language of the measure leaves unclear whether an exemption
applies to syrups used in milk-based coffee drinks prepared to order
by baristas in coffee shops including those in the Seattle-based
Starbucks chain.
City Councilman Tim Burgess, the measure's chief sponsor, said those
details would be ironed out through implementing regulations still
to be developed by the mayor's office.
Starbucks did not respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Tom James; Editing by Steve Gorman and Michael Perry)
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