Will Berkeley Become The First City In The U.S. To Tax Soft Drinks?

The Berkeley city council is planning to put an initiative on the ballot in November to tax soft drinks. The tax will be 1 cent per ounce. Several other cities have already voted on similar ballot measures, but none of them have passed. Coke and Pepsi spent huge sums of money to defeat similar measures elsewhere.

Taxing Sugar. After the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the biggest problem facing the new government was that it was broke. The U.S. Treasury was empty. What little money was collected in taxes mostly went to state governments. When George Washington was president, Congress spent much of its time trying to figure out how to get money to pay for basic government services, like paying the salaries of soldiers and lighthouse keepers. John Adams argued that Congress could and should finance the federal government by taxing liquor, tobacco, and sugar. Adams argued that nobody needs these products and that most people would be better off if they consumed less of them. Congress did tax liquor and tobacco, but they never taxed sugar. Prior to the passage of the 16th Amendment (Income Tax), the U.S. government got over half its total income from liquor taxes, and much of the rest came from tobacco taxes. I don’t know why Congress never seriously considered taxing sugar. During World War 1 and World War 2, sugar was severely rationed, but it was never taxed. Nevertheless, what John Adams said over 200 years ago about sugar is still true. Nobody needs it, and most people would be better off if they consumed less of it. (Sorry if I dwell too much on history. I teach American history at Orinda Intermediate School.)