Nanny Bloomberg must be loving this.







Philadelphia just passed what amounts to a soda tax at 1.5 cents per ounce, making it the first in the country to do this:

6ABC – Philadelphia City Council has passed a beverage tax despite a multimillion-dollar campaign by the beverage industry to block it. The City Council gave final approval to a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sugary and diet beverages, becoming the first major American city with a beverage tax. The vote was 13-4.

But get this, they aren’t doing it for health reasons. They are doing it to create more revenue to pay for what they say will be schools and recreation centers. But you know how it works. Once they get that money, they’ll spend it on whatever they want:

Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney sold the council on the idea with a plan to spend most of the estimated $90 million in new tax revenues next year to pay for prekindergarten, community schools and recreation centers. Many communities where soda tax proposals have failed sought it as a way to discourage consumers from buying sugary beverages for health reasons. The case could certainly be made for a healthier Philadelphia – more than 68 percent of adults and 41 percent of children in the city are overweight or obese. But Kenney focused on public interest over public health in making the argument to tax sugary drinks. The tax is a hard-fought win for the city. The soda industry spent millions of dollars in advertising against the proposal, arguing that the tax would be costly to consumers. The plan also attracted national attention and dollars, with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Texas billionaires John and Laura Arnold – advocates for less consumption of sugary drinks – funding ads in support. “If this tax is passed, Philadelphia would create the worst black market for non-alcoholic beverages since prohibition, which was back in the 1920s and 30s. Let’s not go back in history,” Chris Hunter, an employee of Coca-Cola, said. The soda industry is expected to sue. READ FULL ARTICLE…

This is big government at its worst. I hope the citizens of Philadelphia kicks these city council members out of office when they are up for re-election. That’s the only way to deal with thugs like this.