A third city in the San Francisco Bay area will vote whether to put a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, predominantly soda. This time, the November referendum will be in Oakland, neighbor to Berkeley, the first and only city in the nation to adopt a soda tax. The Oakland City Council voted unanimously to put the soda tax on the fall ballot, says public broadcaster KQED. Council member Campbell Washington, sponsor of the tax, said she expects “a huge fight. We saw in Berkeley that the beverage industry is willing to pour millions and millions into the fight against these kinds of taxes and we expect the same thing here.”
Similar to Berkeley, which passed a soda tax in 2014, the Oakland proposal would set a 1-cent per ounce tax on sugary drinks, such as sodas, energy drinks and fruit-flavored beverages. It is expected to generate as much as $10 million a year. An advisory board would recommend health programs that would receive money from the tax receipts. A simple majority is needed for passage.
Soda tax proponents are also gathering signatures to force a new vote in San Francisco. A proposal for a 2-cent tax got 56 percent of the vote in 2014 but a two-thirds majority was needed because the revenue was earmarked for nutrition and physical education programs in schools and projects such as water-bottle filling stations. This time, the proposal is for a 1-cent tax that needs only a simple majority.
City supervisor Malia Cohen says 10,000 signatures are needed on petitions by July to put the tax on the Nov. 8 ballot. A month ago, Cohen said, 9,000 signatures already were in hand and the petitions should be complete by late May, said KQED.
“The soda industry opposes such fees, arguing that the focus on sugar-sweetened beverages oversimplifies complex health problems such as obesity and diabetes. It also says such fees hit poor people hardest,” said KQED.