From Your Health Journal…..”So, some big soda companies paid an awful large amount of money to stop a tax hike on purchasing soda – the measures would have added a penny-an-ounce tax on soda. So, with my horrible math skills, a big gulp at 7/11 may cost an extra 52 cents while the double big gulp would cost an extra 64 cents. For many who purchase soda on a regular basis, who are trying to save money, this may hurt their wallets to some point. The money for taxes would raise money for a good cause locally, but hurt some individuals. I am guessing the raise in the taxes would dissuade individuals from purchasing soda, but at the same time, help fight obesity by reducing the ‘liquid sugar.’ If anyone who posts here can clarify this, please do?? But the bottom line is fighting obesity, as for many people around the world, 40% of their daily calorie consumption is from liquid. Simply cutting back on the liquids and getting some daily exercise would benefit many people.”

From the article…..

The American Beverage Assn. and friends spent $4.1 million to defeat two California towns’ ballot measures to tax sodas. What else could that money have done?

Big Soda spent big bucks. That’s how it defeated ballot measures to create soda taxes in two California towns.

In Richmond, in the Bay Area, and in El Monte, east of Los Angeles, the measures would have added a penny-an-ounce tax on soda. Had the taxes passed, they were projected to raise millions of dollars aimed at funding local recreation and nutrition activities to fight childhood obesity.

To bury these towns in an avalanche of billboards, mailers and ads, the American Beverage Assn. and friends wrote checks totaling $4.1 million. Supporters of the measures, primarily children’s health advocates, spent $114,000.

Big Soda spent $115 per vote in Richmond and El Monte. In comparison, supporters of Proposition 30, the governor’s tax measure, spent $5.85 per vote.

It was the most expensive campaign battle ever waged in El Monte. In Richmond, 99% of the funds used to defeat the soda tax poured in from out of state, 95% of them from Washington lobbying firms. Not a single cent for the “no” campaign came from an individual citizen.

Big Soda’s sky-high spending was a new low for California. Its political strategists have surely been slapping each other on the back, proud of the strong message they sent to other cities that might consider similar measures.

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