By Jason Doyle Oden
A former lawmaker is calling for a soda tax to help bail the state out of its $868 million budget gap and improve health rankings. Former Representative Jerry Ellis has been term limited, but continues to call for tax increases to pay for government services.
Ellis notes that when he became a Representative in 2003, there were calls for increasing tobacco taxes, eliminating some sales tax exemptions, and increasing the tax on motor fuels. He said government officials are sounding like a broken record.
“I suspect that Oklahoma voters will have the same enthusiasm for elimination of sales tax exemptions that they had during the November 8 general election for the proposed penny sales tax increase for education,” Ellis said.
Many officials, including Republicans and Democrats, have stated this time around the Legislature won’t be able to cut its way out of the budget hole.
“Since the GOP has finally and belatedly acknowledged what Democrats have been saying for several years – that Oklahoma cannot cut its way to prosperity – the Republicans ought to consider a tax that would generate revenue and perhaps improve health outcomes in this state,” Ellis said.
Ellis points to a one penny sales tax on sodas and sugary drinks. While expecting some resistance by the big soda companies, he believes the tax could improve Oklahoma’s health rankings and help pay for services at the same time.
“I realize that some critics will contend that a soda tax would affect lower-income Oklahomans more than the ‘high society’ crowd that lives in gated communities,” said Ellis, a lifelong Democrat.
“This state desperately needs a relatively steady revenue source, and tax receipts collected from sugary beverages could be spent on badly needed health-care programs. If anyone actually quit buying sodas and sugary drinks because of the tax increase, so much the better. This state’s health rankings would improve.
“I believe that many people would continue to buy soft drinks even if a soda tax were assessed, so nobody would lose their job over it,” Ellis asserted. “Soft drinks are not a necessity; they’re optional. I’m still drinking my Mountain Dew every day.”
So do we know how much soda is sold so we can extrapolate how much tax we can raise from this?
Pop, tattoos, doggie shampoo, car washes, etc. – anything but using the previous state income rates to get us out of this hole.
I take comfort in the fact that this guy is a “former lawmaker.” Emphasis on the word “former.”
As noted here, soda taxes are regressive. However, contrary to the claims here, soda taxes do not improve public health. To this point, the editorial board of USA Today came out against soda taxes, stating “[s]oda taxes are heavy on intrusion and light on impact…Most important, soda taxes haven’t been shown to work.” Additionally, scientific research from Cornell University found that diets and health campaigns targeting specific foods to prevent obesity aren’t as effective as evaluating the entire diet. As stated by researcher David Just, “If we want real change we need to look at the overall diet and physical activity.”
Moreover, singling out soda is no solution and won’t make a measurable difference when it comes to combating obesity or obesity-related conditions. As CDC data confirms, soda contributes just 4% of calories in the American diet, and all sugar-sweetened beverages combined attribute just 6%. Meanwhile, fats, oils and starches contribute a whopping 84%. In other words, targeting any one source of calories with a tax won’t net the promised returns for health. What will? Education and collaboration about overall dietary balance can drive behavior change.
Beverage companies are committed to being part of real solutions with initiatives like Balance Calories, which aims to reduce beverage calories in the American diet by 20 percent nationally by 2025 by offering more lower- and no-calorie choices and smaller sizes and then finding ways to get people to try them.