Friday Question of the Day – Soda Tax?

Photo by PoPville flickr user gc-dc

I know we’ve been talking a lot about taxes lately but given the budget it looks like a lot of ideas are gonna be debated. I just received an email about a group called Support the D.C. Healthy Schools Act. They say:

The Healthy Schools Act is a landmark bill that will:

* substantially improve health, wellness, and nutrition in our schools
* raise the nutritional standards and improve the quality of school meals
* bring more fresh, local fruits and vegetables to schools
* triple the amount of and vegetables to schools
* triple the amount of physical and health education by adopting national standards
* create school gardens and support other environmental initiatives
* expand school-based health and wellness programs

The proposed Healthy Schools Revenue Act would fund this initiative by:

* adding a one-cent-per-ounce tax to sugar-sweetened beverages to fight obesity
* the tax WOULD NOT include diet soda, non-caloric beverages, juices, milk, and water
* the soda tax would be imposed on distributors – NOT our small, local businesses. It would not apply to concentrated syrup, which is primarily sold to restaurants and bars

Apparently there is some serious lobbying against this act. Given the fact that obesity is such a problem in DC’s schools (and the budget deficit) do you support a soda tax?