PHILADELPHIA – Alex Baloga, vice president of external relation for the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association, wrote last week in the Philadelphia Business Journal in opposition to a budget plan by Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. The mayor’s proposal would levy a three cent per ounce tax on sugar sweetened beverages, which would increase the cost of a two-liter bottle of soda by $2.04. The proposed tax, he wrote, “is so high that consumers would be forced to pay more in taxes than they would for the product itself.”
If implemented, “this tax would hit Philadelphians in every aspect of their lives—making it more expensive to grab a bite at a convenience store, go to the movies or catch a Phillies game,” Baloga says, noting that it would also raise grocery costs and cost jobs—jobs that often “provide ladders of opportunity for entire families in some of Philadelphia’s poorest neighborhoods” to enter the middle class.
“Both small businesses and poor Philadelphia families are already contending with recent gas rate increases, as well as a proposed 11% water rate hike. If Mayor Kenney wants to follow through on his campaign promise to invest in our neighborhoods, then he should support these business owners—not punish them.”
Baloga writes that much of Mayor Kenney’s budget proposal rests on the city issuing a series of bonds to cover capital improvements in city-owned buildings and in parks and recreation facilities. However, he notes that these bonds “would be guaranteed by revenue raised from this proposed [soda] tax on Philadelphians’ beverages,” an “unstable and untested” revenue source. Instead, Baloga suggests that the mayor turn to “tried-and-tested revenue sources” that will support citywide programs for years to come.
“We are confident as the mayor’s proposal is thoroughly vetted by [the] city council in the coming months, the flaws underlying this regressive tax plan will become clear. Ordinary Philadelphians have said time and again that this tax is unfair to families, and we are confident that their voices will prevail.”