Speaker 1: You're listening to Taking Stock with Kathleen Hayes and Pim
Speaker 1: Box on Bloomberg Radio, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and
Speaker 1: of course the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Speaker 1: all immortalized by Sylvester Stallone. Now add to it, Philadelphia
Speaker 1: has become the first major US city to enact a
Speaker 1: soda tax, the city Council approving a one and a
Speaker 1: half cents per ounce levy on sugary and artificially sweetened beverages.
Speaker 1: Here to tell us more is Annabelle Gibson, Managing Editor,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg b an A, a wholly owned subsidiary subsidiary of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Gets, a leading source of legal, regulatory and business
Speaker 1: information for professionals. Annabelle, thank you very much for being
Speaker 1: with us. Thank you for having me tell us about
Speaker 1: this soda tax and some of the issues surrounding this tax. Well,
Speaker 1: Philadelphia's tax is want to have sense per fluid ounce.
Speaker 1: And that doesn't sound like a lot because it's just
Speaker 1: you know, an extra little penny and a half. But
Speaker 1: when you added up determining how many ounces are per
Speaker 1: leader or per can, that's actually a whole extra dollar
Speaker 1: of tax per two leader bottle or even over two
Speaker 1: dollars in tax for those twelve packs of sodas that
Speaker 1: you buy in your grocery store, convenience store, or wherever.
Speaker 1: And that's a lot of money for cities and states
Speaker 1: to generate revenue. And Philadelphia is actually estimating that they're
Speaker 1: going to be able to raise million dollars in revenue
Speaker 1: in the first year just from this one and a
Speaker 1: half cent tax that's going to start in well, and
Speaker 1: it's been something people been trying to do for a while,
Speaker 1: right to get these soda tax enacted. And of course
Speaker 1: that rats revenues for states and cities. It also may
Speaker 1: over time reduce some costs for healthcare for medical care
Speaker 1: because if people drink fewer sugary sodas, there's all kinds
Speaker 1: of conditions they will not tend to develop as much,
Speaker 1: things like diabetes for example. Yeah. Um. And actually, cities
Speaker 1: and some states have been trying to do this for
Speaker 1: several years now. There have been at least forty attempts
Speaker 1: or so since about two thousand nine of cities who
Speaker 1: have tried to have very similar taxes to this of
Speaker 1: one sense per ounce or two cents perouns and previously
Speaker 1: most um jurisdictions have attempted to tout these as ways
Speaker 1: to lower healthcare costs because they deter people from buying
Speaker 1: all these sugary beverages because they're less healthy options. So
Speaker 1: the ideas make them more expensive, very much like other
Speaker 1: syntaxes like products on alcohol and tobacco war. They're made
Speaker 1: to be more expensive and less people will buy them.
Speaker 1: And Philadelphia took an interesting route is instead of really saying, oh,
Speaker 1: this is simply for a healthcare measure, they really supported
Speaker 1: it and proposed it to be a way to generate
Speaker 1: the revenue. So it really went an interesting route, and
Speaker 1: other cities may try to do the same thing. Now
Speaker 1: since Philadelphia has been successful, and about what has been
Speaker 1: the the result of soft drink taxes in Arkansas and
Speaker 1: West Virginia, what have we learned? Well, Arkansas and West
Speaker 1: Virginia have taxes that are kind of similar, but they're
Speaker 1: actually a lot less when you look at the dollar amount.
Speaker 1: I don't have how much revenue they raise, but Arkansas
Speaker 1: tax is only one cents per gallon for bottle drinks,
Speaker 1: so that's actually only about a tenth of a cent
Speaker 1: per ounce, so it's a lot less and West Virginia's
Speaker 1: tax is even less than that that. It's only one
Speaker 1: cent per sixteen point nine ounces as about a half
Speaker 1: a leader, so it's you know, point zero zero six
Speaker 1: cents per ounce, so it's a very little. They are
Speaker 1: definitely not the revenue generators. Even though they're for large
Speaker 1: states they can make some money. But Philadelphia it's is
Speaker 1: actually a higher tax rate. And Gibson, thank you so
Speaker 1: very much for joining managing editor at Bloomberg b NA,
Speaker 1: joining us from Arlington, Virginia to talk about the soda
Speaker 1: tax attax on shore sweet and drinks that Philadelphia just
Speaker 1: successful be passed