Put Down The Cola: The County Wants To Tax Sugary Drinks

By Stephen Gossett in News on Sep 21, 2016 4:42PM

The expensive stuff / Getty Images / Photo: Justin Sullivan

It usually takes us here in flyover country a little while to catch up to the coasts, and we might be finally doing that in one semi-controversial aspect: Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle is strongly considering a new sugary drinks tax.

Yes, the biggest issue of 2010 has arrived in Chicago as the city clambers for revenue in the face of a more than $170 million budget deficit.

There is strong recent evidence that a tax on soda—or pop or coke or whatever else weirdos call it—and its cousins can have a significantly positive impact on public health. But as with most of these proposals, the main impetus appears to be money. The Sun-Times reports that Preckwinkle has been working hard with labor leaders to shore up support for the tax—likely between a half cent and one cent—in hopes of avoiding layoffs.

The blowback from the restaurant industry was swift and full-throated, as Sam Toia, president of the Illinois Restaurant Association, enumerated the list of recent taxes, of which we’re all now uncomfortably familiar. “We pay the highest sales tax in the nation,” said Toia. “We just had our property taxes raised twice. We now have a new tax on water and sewer bills. Residents and businesses of Cook County have been nickeled and dimed so much, they have tax fatigue.”

It’s not clear how much revenue such a tax would generate, as more and more Americans are realizing that soda is gross and kicking the habit.

Currently two cities in the U.S. have a sugary drinks tax. Berkley instated theirs in 2014, and Philadelphia adopted one earlier this year. Voters in Oakland and San Francisco will consider a tax in ballot measures in November.