Two years after a similar effort went nowhere in Montpelier, a coalition of Vermont groups is hoping to convince legislators to impose a tax on sugared beverages.
The Alliance for a Healthier Vermont wants a two cent per ounce excise tax placed on sugary drinks.
Campaign Director Anthony Iarrapino says it would reduce the incidence of obesity and lower health care costs. “We are trying to come forward with a proposal that levels the playing field for healthier beverage options and also raises money to help get at the other root causes of obesity and one example is lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables. That’s where we’d like to see some of the more than $30 million in taxes raised go to help fund.”
UVM Professor of Nutrition Dr. Rachel Johnson is a member of the American Heart Association National Nutrition Committee. She says sugary drinks are the number one source of excess calories. “A typical 20-ounce soda has about 18 teaspoons of sugar. I’ve even seen teenagers purchasing one liter bottles of soda as a single serving beverage and those have up to 700 calories or about 44 teaspoons of sugar.”
Vermont State Dental Society Executive Director Vaughn Collins says public education is crucial. “I don’t think people understand the amount of sugar that’s in a drink. It was pretty alarming to see how much sugar is in one of those drinks.”
The coalition of more than 30 groups includes health and medical organizations, low-income and consumer advocates. Vermont Low-Income Advocacy Council Legislative Liaison Karen Lafayette strongly supports the idea of the tax. “We do that in the efforts to reduce obesity, to help low income folks understand better nutrition choices, to promote obesity prevention and education efforts and to provide funding to subsidize the purchase of healthy foods and raise revenues to provide greater access to health care, especially oral health.”
An effort to impose a one cent per ounce tax failed in 2013. American Heart Association in Vermont Government Relations Director Tina Zuk notes it could be the perfect storm for such legislation this year. “I think there’s more interest in the tax now. There’s also a large budget deficit. So I think there’s a bunch of things that could maybe make this the perfect storm for the tax this year. I think everyone realizes we have to get health care spending down and unless we start focusing on prevention, not only heart disease but cancer and diabetes related to obesity, we’re not going to get spending down. And this is a great way to start that process.”
The Stop the Vermont Beverage Tax Coalition plans to fight the effort to get the tax passed. Andrew MacLean is a lobbyist with MMR; the Beverage Association of Vermont is one of its clients. He questions the data from supporters and notes that beverage sales are down. He calls it a hidden and extremely expensive tax. “One example two-liter beverages are sold and many times the price of those is 99 cents. If that’s the case, your tax would be $1.20 on a product that’s priced at a dollar or 99 cents. So the tax would be more than the price of the product.”
The Alliance for a Healthier Vermont is proposing that revenues from the tax be used for health care, food security and wellness programs.
