CHICAGO - Health advocates and retailers faced off before Chicago??s City Council Health Committee earlier this week over whether Chicago should raise taxes on soda, energy drinks and other sugary beverages, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Alderman George Cardenas chaired the committee hearing, which included proposals to tax sugary drinks anywhere from 15 to 30 cents a container to a penny an ounce.

Retailers voiced strong opposition to the proposal, maintaining that they??re still hurting from the city??s imposition of a tax on bottled water. Additionally, Teamsters Joint Council 25, represented by its political director, Mike Ciaccio, said every 10% increase in taxes on sugary drinks results in a 12% reduction in consumption, a dip that would reduce sales, production, and jobs.

"However well-intentioned a soda tax might be, it would unfairly target middle-class workers," Ciaccio argued. "These are jobs where someone could spend 30 or 40 years with one company and retire with a modest pension ?" the kind of jobs we??re trying to create.

"Something as regressive as increasing the tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would simply take away those jobs," he said. "And there will be a trickle-down effect to supermarket employees, restaurants and small business owners."

Health experts countered with data on childhood obesity, drawing a link between the epidemic and consumption of sugary drinks.

"We know that taxing at the right level can reduce consumption of sugary drinks and that reducing consumption will help reduce the prevalence of obesity," said city Health Commissioner Dr. Bechara Choucair. "A growing body of evidence suggests that reducing consumption of sugary drinks could be the single-most effective intervention in reducing the prevalence of obesity in the United States."

Cardenas ended the hearing with a promise to work with the city??s Health Department, business community, and public schools to create a tax policy that encourages healthy behavior without sacrificing jobs or penalizing any one industry.

"We??ll even look at the tax on bottled water with the potential to even repeal it if it helps to get us to a better place," said Cardenas.