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Soda tax could close budget gaps

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Twenty-five states impose special taxes on soda and other beverages with added sugar, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The public health advocacy group estimates that those that do not -- including California -- could generate a combined $10 billion per year by levying a tax of 7 cents per 12-ounce can of Coke or Mountain Dew.

The organization, which is lobbying for such taxes and has even suggested a national excise tax on sugared drinks, said raising the price of the beverages would reduce consumption. It believes that would reduce the incidence of obesity, diabetes and other costly chronic diseases.

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President Obama has said he might consider a tax on sugared drinks, believing that it could help lower healthcare expenditures.

“President Obama is exactly right when he say kids are drinking too much soda,” said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “Soda is dirt-cheap and promotes expensive and debilitating diseases, which in turn run up health-care costs at all levels of government.”

Marion Nestle, a New York University nutrition professor, is one of a number of food experts who believe that the movement to tax sugared drinks is gaining steam. In a post to the HealthierTalk.com website, Nestle said such a tax could be effective in limiting consumption because soda has become such a ubiquitous beverage.

“It did not used to be OK for kids to drink sodas all day long. Now it is. Taxes might encourage some changes in these recent practices. It will be interesting to watch this idea progress,” Nestle wrote.

But others see increased taxes on sugar-laden drinks as a government intrusion on personal choice.

“The tax code should not be used as a tool for social engineering. Nor should it be an instrument for penalizing individuals’ personal food choices --- choices that some government officials find distasteful,” said J. Justin Wilson, senior research analyst at the Center for Consumer Freedom. “Taxing soda pop is another paternalistic policy idea, which holds that politicians and government regulators -- rather than individual citizens -- should decide every aspect of what, where and when we eat.”

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-- Jerry Hirsch
Twitter.com/LATimesJerry

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