Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Bloomberg BNA's Gibson on Philadelphia Passing Soda Tax (Audio)

Transcript

Bloomberg BNA's Gibson on Philadelphia Passing Soda Tax (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're listening to Taking Stock with Kathleen Hayes and Pim
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Box on Bloomberg Radio, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of course the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: all immortalized by Sylvester Stallone. Now add to it, Philadelphia
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: has become the first major US city to enact a
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: soda tax, the city Council approving a one and a
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: half cents per ounce levy on sugary and artificially sweetened beverages.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Here to tell us more is Annabelle Gibson, Managing Editor,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Bloomberg b an A, a wholly owned subsidiary subsidiary of
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Gets, a leading source of legal, regulatory and business
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: information for professionals. Annabelle, thank you very much for being
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: with us. Thank you for having me tell us about
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: this soda tax and some of the issues surrounding this tax. Well,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Philadelphia's tax is want to have sense per fluid ounce.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: And that doesn't sound like a lot because it's just
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: you know, an extra little penny and a half. But
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: when you added up determining how many ounces are per
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: leader or per can, that's actually a whole extra dollar
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: of tax per two leader bottle or even over two
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: dollars in tax for those twelve packs of sodas that
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: you buy in your grocery store, convenience store, or wherever.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: And that's a lot of money for cities and states
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: to generate revenue. And Philadelphia is actually estimating that they're
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: going to be able to raise million dollars in revenue
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: in the first year just from this one and a
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: half cent tax that's going to start in well, and
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: it's been something people been trying to do for a while,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: right to get these soda tax enacted. And of course
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: that rats revenues for states and cities. It also may
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: over time reduce some costs for healthcare for medical care
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: because if people drink fewer sugary sodas, there's all kinds
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: of conditions they will not tend to develop as much,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: things like diabetes for example. Yeah. Um. And actually, cities
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and some states have been trying to do this for
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: several years now. There have been at least forty attempts
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: or so since about two thousand nine of cities who
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: have tried to have very similar taxes to this of
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: one sense per ounce or two cents perouns and previously
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: most um jurisdictions have attempted to tout these as ways
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: to lower healthcare costs because they deter people from buying
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: all these sugary beverages because they're less healthy options. So
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: the ideas make them more expensive, very much like other
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: syntaxes like products on alcohol and tobacco war. They're made
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: to be more expensive and less people will buy them.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: And Philadelphia took an interesting route is instead of really saying, oh,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: this is simply for a healthcare measure, they really supported
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: it and proposed it to be a way to generate
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the revenue. So it really went an interesting route, and
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: other cities may try to do the same thing. Now
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: since Philadelphia has been successful, and about what has been
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the the result of soft drink taxes in Arkansas and
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: West Virginia, what have we learned? Well, Arkansas and West
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Virginia have taxes that are kind of similar, but they're
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: actually a lot less when you look at the dollar amount.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I don't have how much revenue they raise, but Arkansas
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: tax is only one cents per gallon for bottle drinks,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: so that's actually only about a tenth of a cent
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: per ounce, so it's a lot less and West Virginia's
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: tax is even less than that that. It's only one
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: cent per sixteen point nine ounces as about a half
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: a leader, so it's you know, point zero zero six
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: cents per ounce, so it's a very little. They are
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: definitely not the revenue generators. Even though they're for large
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: states they can make some money. But Philadelphia it's is
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: actually a higher tax rate. And Gibson, thank you so
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: very much for joining managing editor at Bloomberg b NA,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: joining us from Arlington, Virginia to talk about the soda
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: tax attax on shore sweet and drinks that Philadelphia just
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: successful be passed