Philadelphia Adopts Soda Tax
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia has become the first major American 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, California, 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 "a historic investment" in the city's neighborhoods and education system.
The soda industry is expected to sue.