by Paul Bass | Feb 3, 2015 1:12 pm

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Posted to: True Vote

People call New Haven State Rep. Juan Candelaria “The Candy Man” because of his name. Now they have a second reason.

Candelaria (pictured) has proposed a bill that would make Connecticut the first state to tax candy.

His proposal, H.B. No. 5461, would impose a one-cent tax on the sale of each ounce of high-sugar soft drinks and candy. It fits into a nationwide move by health advocates and elected officials like New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro to use tax policy as one weapon against the childhood obesity epidemic. The bill has been raised by the legislature’s Joint Committee On Children.

Candelaria said he got the idea for the bill while hearing about the epidemic at a conference last year held by the National Council of Hispanic State Legislators to explore disparities in health care. Consumption of excessive amounts of sugar has been linked to obesity as well as diabetes, among other health problems.

“If you look at minority communities, black and brown, there was an increase in consumption, especially candy,” Candelaria said Tuesday. “There is an epidemic within our community. I said, ‘We need to do something about this.’”

Candelaria discovered that no other state has a law taxing candy. Four states—Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia—tax high-sugar soft drinks. They dedicate the revenue raised “to a specific purpose,” according to this state legislative report: litter programs in Virginia and Tennessee, Medicaid and “university programs” in Arkansas and West Virginia. Candelaria proposes dedicating the revenue raised by his bill to three uses: state college and university scholarships; municipal aid; and childhood obesity prevention.

Eighteen local government jurisdictions tax the sale of candy at a higher rate than that of other groceries, according to the legislative report. Twenty-three do so with soft drinks. Ten states have seen proposals to tax soft drinks or candy since 2013; none of those proposals to date has passed.

A public hearing has not been set yet for Candelaria’s bill. So far, he said, his proposal has drawn support from the American Heart Association and criticism from Pepsi-Cola.

“U.S .confectioners oppose discriminatory sales taxes that single out candy,” Susan Whiteside, a spokeswoman for the National Confectioners Association, stated in an email message. “Some legislators see taxes on candy and soda as a way to decrease the prevalence of obesity; however, there’s simply no evidence to prove that these taxes work.”

The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity has studied the question in depth. Looking at laws from 34 states, researchers there concluded that a sales tax needs to be large enough for consumers to notice in order to cut consumption of sugary beverages.

In this study, the center’s Roberta Friedman and Kelly Brownell concluded that the price of a product needs to rise 10 percent; then it can result in an 8 to 12.6 percent drop in consumption.

“The 10% increase in price can be achieved with a penny-per-ounce tax,” they write. (Click here to read the full study.

State Rep. Joe Markley said Tuesday that he opposes Candelaria’s bill, along with the trend of some public-health advocates of seeking to curb unhealthful habits through tax policy, on philosophical grounds.

“The world is full of unhealthy things,” Markley said. “If we start going down that road, there’s going to be no end to it. We have to respect people’s ability to make decisions for themselves, even if they’re not good decisions. Real liberalism is about allowing people to have autonomy and respecting them as human beings. It’s easy to get in this frame of mind, ‘If it’s not good for us, let’s tax it.’”

In Congress, Congresswoman DeLauro has been pushing for a passage of a Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tax (SWEET) Act. It would tax beverages a penny for every teaspoon of processed sugar or high-fructose corn syrup.

In a recent interview, DeLauro called sugar “the new tobacco.” As with cigarettes, tax policy can lead people consume less sugar, she argued.

“Years ago we knew tobacco was killing people and was addictive,” she said. “We made a determination as a nation that raising prices on cigarettes was going to save lives.” And it did. Now turbo-sweetened sodas and juices are leading to an epidemic of diabetes, costing the nation $90 billion a year in treatment, she said. Opponents argue that consumers can be trusted to make their own choices about whether to drink sugary drinks without being taxed. DeLauro has also pushed for more honest labeling of sugar content in soft drinks.