Philadelphia's Mayor Jim Kenney is pushing 3-cents-per-ounce sugary drinks' tax to fund his universal pre-K plan. The sugary drinks tax that could be collected over the five years could also fund green jobs plan and repay a bond for rebuilding parks and recreations centers according to the mayor.
Kenney's proposed sugary drinks' tax could summed up to $400 million over the course of five years. It would be levied on any beverage added with sugar including sports drink and sweetened teas. The tax would be imposed on soda lovers and distributors, who are more likely to condemn the proposal. The proposed sugary drinks tax comes after former Mayor Michael Nutter offered a two-cents-per-ounce tax that didn't even reach the council. Kenney, who was a city council that time never supported Nutter's idea, according to Daily Mail.
"This will be successful this time," Kenney said in a recent interview in his office. "There's more evidence the funds will be used for things that people can clearly identify and Council members can clearly identify with. Before, there was no identifiable project or projects tied to it."
Since the Philadelphia mayor announced the proposal on sugary drinks' tax, the American Beverage Association has sinceexpressed their will to oppose it. Teamsters Local 830 representing employess at te beverage distributors claimed that tax could end up Pepsi and Coca Cola op-erations in the city. They further contest that it could lead to loss of jobs and trigger a consumer revolt, Philly reports. Restaurant operators and associations also condemned the idea telling it would drive restaurateurs away from Philadelphia.
"While we absolutely, desperately, need universal pre-K, we also absolutely, desperately, need jobs," John Longstreet, CEO of the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association said of the sugary drinks' tax plan.
As KTAR reported, Kenney seeks to add 10,000 pre-K seats by 2020 which would need $256 million. Other intiatives that could be funded by the sugary drinks' tax include $39 million for 25 community schools, $56 million to repay part of a $300 million proposed bond meeded for reconstructing recreational parks and centers, $23 million for Council President Darrell L. Clarke's plan to make the city energy-eficient and $26 million to the city's pension system.
The sugary drinks' tax proposed by Kenney is two percent higher than the only existing sugary drinks' tax in Berkeley, California. A City Hall source claimed that nearly six members of the council supports the proposed sugary tax. There must be nine votes from the council to grant the tax.
