Advocate Calls for Add-Ons to Sugary Beverage Taxes

Drawing on lessons from tobacco regulation, Temple University Associate Professor Jennifer Pomeranz has authored an article recommending that state and local governments which opt to impose taxes on sugary beverages consider also adopting measures such as minimum price laws and prohibitions on price discounting and coupons to effectively deter consumption. Titled “Sugary Tax Policy: Lessons Learned from Tobacco,” the article claims that sugary beverage manufacturers can distribute the cost of a tax throughout their product lines, including diet beverages, bottled water and juice, thus making the imposition of minimum prices along with sufficiently high taxes a way to deter manufacturers from circumventing the price increase associated with a sugary beverage tax. Formerly with the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Pomeranz also calls for additional research on whether it would be feasible to condition retail licensing on compliance with measures adopted to reduce sugary beverage consumption. See American Journal of Public Health, March 2014.

Issue 514