Philadelphia has become the first major U.S. city with a soda tax despite a multimillion-dollar campaign by the beverage industry to block it.

The City Council gave final approval Thursday to a 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary and diet beverages.

Berkeley is the only other U.S. city with such a tax. Other proposals have been defeated in more than 30 cities and states.

Two previous efforts to pass a soda tax in Philadelphia also failed.


But 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 pre-kindergarten, community schools and recreation centers.

He calls the passage of the measure “a historic investment” in the city’s neighborhoods and education system.

Representative of the soda industry is expected to sue.

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