OAKLAND — Three council members are blasting Mayor Libby Schaaf’s plan to spend revenue from a successful soda tax measure to help close the city’s budget deficit, calling the mayor’s proposal a “bait and switch” on voters.

Related Articles Soda tax: Big wins in San Francisco, Oakland, Albany could be first in stream of new soda taxes Voters in November passed the penny-per-ounce tax on the promise that while the tax revenue would go to the general fund, it would be spent on an advisory board to use the money to fight childhood obesity and educate the public on the health risks of drinking soda.

Councilmembers Annie Campbell Washington, Desley Brooks and Rebecca Kaplan, who co-authored the measure, said the mayor’s final budget proposes using the revenues to fill the city’s budget deficit.

“I am deeply offended the proposed budget redirects revenue from our new Sugar Sweetened Beverage Tax for other priorities,” Campbell Washington wrote on Facebook Thursday evening.

“The impacts of sugary drinks impact the African American and Latino communities at disparate rates,” Brooks wrote on Facebook. “The HH campaign needed these communities to secure passage of the measure. To now tell these communities that the monies that should go to their communities to help address the deadly impacts of sugary drinks is now going to be used to close the budget deficit is not honorable.”

Schaaf plans to release her two-year budget plan Friday. The mayor’s spokeswoman, Erica Derryck wrote in a statement that Schaaf’s plan on how to use the revenues is “consistent with the goals of the measure.”

“As she was during the campaign, Mayor Schaaf remains a strong proponent of Measure HH and its goal of working with our community partners in fighting against the epidemics of childhood obesity and diabetes,” Derryck wrote in an email.

Measure HH passed with 61 percent approval. Supporters said the measure would raise $6 million a year once the city begins collecting the tax. Opponents warned the money could be used for other purposes since it goes to the general fund.

Critics also questioned why the city was proposing a general tax measure, which needs 50 percent plus one vote approval, instead of a measure needing two-thirds approval. The latter would have set the money aside from the general fund. At the time city officials promised the money would not be used for anything other than soda tax related initiatives.

“You are telling the public that we have to be concerned about the health and safety of young black and brown kids but you are not using the money for that,” said Greg McConnell, head of the Jobs and Housing Coalition. McConnell opposed the tax. “The bigger question is, should cities be allowed to use the law in this way.”

Campbell Washington said she would “fight” the mayor’s proposal.

“I will immediately bring forward legislation to limit how these funds can be used and establish the Sugar Sweetened Beverage Advisory Board,” Campbell Washington wrote. “It is outrageous to pull a ‘bait and switch’ on Oakland voters who supported children’s health.”