IT MUST have been one of the shortest-lived taxes in the history of Illinois. On October 11th lawmakers of Cook County, which includes Chicago, overwhelmingly voted to repeal the county’s soda tax. It had come into effect on August 2nd, after a delay thanks to a lawsuit by the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, and will cease to exist on December 1st. From the very start the one-cent-per-ounce levy on sweetened soft drinks was massively unpopular: policymakers claimed it was introduced to protect public health but its main purpose was to plug a $1.8bn hole in the budget.

The repeal is a big victory for the vigorous lobbies of makers of fizzy drinks. It is a setback for Toni Preckwinkle, the president of Cook County Board, and Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, who, as mayor, unsuccessfully tried to introduce the tax in America’s biggest city, and then poured millions of dollars into the campaign for its introduction in the third-largest city. William Dermody of the American Beverage Association, a lobby group, was jubilant claiming the repeal of the tax showed that “beverage taxes are really a money grab that has nothing to do with public health”. Ms Preckwinkle tried to put a brave face on her defeat. "It is up to the commissioners to choose our direction on revenue, and I respect their authority to do so," she said in a statement on October 11th.

At first sight, the tax seems to be a no-brainer. America is plagued by an obesity crisis that is getting worse, especially among children. A new study by the World Health Organisation found that just under 20% of American girls and more than 23% of American boys are obese, which means American children are amongst the fattest in the world. Fizzy sugary drinks contain mainly empty calories and promote tooth decay, so it makes sense to make them less attractive by increasing their price.

Yet the tax had a bad start. An early version, aimed at distributors, had to be revised because it was subject to an additional sales tax, which is illegal in Illinois. The county then proposed to make the tax a line item at the point of sale. But local governments are not allowed to tax purchases paid with food stamps, which meant more than 870,000 people were exempt from the tax. Moreover, the tax was levied on diet drinks, which do not make people fat, but not on fruit juices that are packed with sugar.

When it finally went into effect the levy was met with obstinate public opposition. According to the “Can The Tax” group, a lobby, 90% of Cook county residents were opposed to the tax. Some drove to nearby Indiana to stock up on the fizzy stuff. Local radio was abuzz with complaints. Local lawmakers were flooded with calls to get rid of the tax. And it did not raise as much revenue as forecast because some restaurants retailers sold almost 50% fewer fizzy drinks.

The levy’s defeat in Cook County does not augur well for similar efforts in other parts of America. Boulder in Colorado, four cities in California (San Francisco, Oakland, Albany and Berkeley), Seattle and Philadelphia managed to introduce a tax on soft drinks. West Virginia and Michigan rejected a state-wide introduction of such a levy. Asked whether Philadelphia will face a similar repeal of its soda tax, Jim Kenney, the city’s mayor, pointed out on October 12th that the big difference between his city’s and Chicago’s tax was that Philly’s proceeds went directly into an educational fund paying for pre-kindergarten and community schools. Any attempt to repeal it would meet with fierce resistance from families, said Mr Kenney, adding that the tax would help his city even more if the American Beverage Association did not try to scupper it with a lawsuit that is on its way to the state’s supreme court.