Voters in Santa Fe, New Mexico, decide today whether to adopt a 2-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages — not just on sodas, but on sweetened sports drinks like Gatorade, lemonades and caffeinated energy drinks, among others, says U.S. News & World Report. Artificially sweetened drinks, infant formula, chocolate milk, pure fruit juices, and weight-loss drinks like Ensure would be exempted.
The tax would ding beverage distributors, who would decide how to pass the cost on to retailers and, ultimately, consumers. The tax would go toward funding preschool programs for low-income families, says the Santa Fe New Mexican. But opponents, led by the beverage industry, claim it would only increase the cost of living in a city where prices are already on the rise.
Opposing sides have ponied up a combined $2.8 million, or more than $50 per voter, to push their position, says KOAT News.
Thanks to all that spending, voters have already shown up in impressive numbers, with more than 7,800 ballots submitted in the early voting period. So far, the count is extremely close, says the New Mexican. If the city passes the bill, it will join a small, but growing number of soda-taxed cities in the U.S., including Berkeley, Calif., San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Boulder, Colo.