We first heard of a discriminatory tax on our industry’s products back in 2008, when it was slipped in by the Legislature but then repealed by the people of Maine by a 64-36 margin.  Then in 2009, and again in 2010, New York Gov. David Paterson proposed a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.  The tax died both times, with strong opposition by New Yorkers. Earlier this year, health care reform passed in Congress without including a federal excise tax to help pay for it – an option that was being bantered about by some.  Again, Americans cross the country voiced their opposition to taxing items in their grocery carts. And just last week, more than 60 percent of the voters in Washington state acted to repeal a tax on soda, bottled water, candy and other grocery items.

It seems the message is clear:

Americans believe government at all levels is too involved in their personal lives – and they definitely don’t want government telling them what to eat or drink by taxing common grocery items.

In New York, for the second year in a row, Gov. David Paterson has proposed a tax of a penny an ounce on sugar-sweetened beverages. Last year, he publicly withdrew his proposal after pressure from his constituents. After all, real New Yorkers saw the tax for what it was: a pure money grab. Now, as New York’s Legislature considers its budget and ways in which to fill its ever-growing holes, we encourage Gov. Paterson and his fellow policymakers to once again listen to what New Yorkers have to say: we don’t want a soda tax.

In fact, in a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday, New York voters opposed an “obesity tax or a fat tax on non-diet sugary soft drinks” by a 2-to-1 margin. The numbers speak for themselves. And this isn’t the first time Americans have made their position on soda taxes known. Just last month, a national poll released by Rasmussen Reports found that 73 percent of respondents believe that lawmakers who support a tax on soft drinks are more interested in raising additional funds for government, while only a meager 17 percent believe that the same lawmakers are interested in improving public health. In fact, only 33 percent of Americans support a soda tax.

So what does this all underscore? The fact that Americans are weary of more taxes, highly skeptical that the revenues would go to anything other than bigger government, and extremely leery of the government using the tax code to tell them what to eat or drink.

Happy filing!

Yale University assistant professor of health policy Jason Fletcher is not convinced [that a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would have an impact on obesity]. Fletcher published a study in 2009 showing that states with a tax on soda did not have significantly lower obesity rates.

Niyati Parekh, NYU assistant professor of nutrition and public health, isn’t convinced that a soda tax would make a difference.

“Other diet factors count so much that only taxing sodas is maybe a thought in the right direction,” she said. “But it’s really not going to decrease the rates in obesity as much as doing other interventions.”

She said that lawmakers should be focusing on health education instead.

So, there you have it. A few more voices to add to the growing broad base in New York – union workers, corner store and grocery store owners, academics, individuals and families are lining up to tell Gov. Paterson that this tax is a terrible idea that won’t work.

Science shows that singling out one food or beverage for taxation won’t make an impact on public health.  Uniquely linking obesity to soda consumption is nothing short of misinformation.  A study by Harvard researchers and published in the New England Journal of Medicine last year concluded that all calories count – regardless of the food source – when it comes to losing weight.

This tax is a poorly-masked money grab.  New York union workers quoted in the Troy Record said that it would severely impact the 160,000 well-paying jobs in the state, hitting consumers and businesses hard.

The current turbulent economic climate is even more reason for legislators in New York to walk away from the tax.  And many are, recognizing that this tax would hit hard-working, middle-class families in particular.  As Gov. Paterson and the legislators work to reach an agreement on the state budget, we urge them to shoulder the responsibility for the budget instead of placing the weight on the backs of already struggling New Yorkers.  Reject the beverage tax proposal again this year!

New Yorkers have made it clear on more than one occasion that they aren’t going to put up with a soda tax. They don’t want it—and they don’t believe that it’s a genuine attempt at addressing the issue of obesity, regardless of how some lawmakers try to frame the debate. As we wrote on Monday, taxes don’t make people healthier—diet and exercise do that. Focusing too narrowly on one item in the grocery cart as a means to solve such a complex problem is ineffective. And hiding behind the guise of promoting healthy living is a disingenuous effort at addressing the problem.

See similar sentiments reported in the Utica Observer-Dispatch earlier this week that highlight a local businessman in the area:

Bill Chanatry, owner of Chanatry’s Supermarkets Inc., said he thinks Paterson’s plan is just a “money grab” and not really about combating obesity. Chanatry also said he is worried that the soda tax is just the first step to taxes on other unhealthy items such as bacon and sausage.

“It’s an intrusion into our lives,” Chanatry said. “Today, it’s soda. What’s tomorrow?”

Like Chanatry, we wonder what’s next? Once government reaches in to the grocery cart, it’s a slippery slope.

“Voters are opposed to the Governor’s proposed tax on soda and other sugared beverages by a margin of 59 percent to 38 percent. While Democrats and New York City voters are closely divided on this issue, it is overwhelmingly opposed by Republican, independents, downstate suburbanites and upstaters,” Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said in a press release about the poll.

The soda tax is part of the Governor’s budget proposal. Health concerns are supposedly the driving force for the taxes. However, the motives are painfully transparent: closing the budget gap. This disingenuous attempt to raise revenue is not lost on voters in New York who understand that the proposed tax is little more than a money grab.

For more information about the tax and what you can do to take action, check in with the New Yorkers Against Unfair Taxes.

Some of you may be bleary-eyed after pulling your first all-nighter since college trying to get your taxes in under the wire. Sip & Savor did their taxes early – and already spent the refund (a trip to Spring Training in Florida, thank you very much.) But April 15 is an annual reminder of just how much money we send to Washington.

And some folks are fed up with it. Yep – they’re Mad As Hell.

Today, thousands of people are set to take to the streets in tea parties in about 500 cities across the country to show legislators that they’re Mad As Hell. They’re mad about what they say is over-taxation in Washington and an over-willingness to bailout failed businesses by the Treasury Department. This movement started with CNBC’s Rick Santelli’s “rant” on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and takes its cue from the Boston Tea Party (1773) which has become a symbolic event in American history.

Already this year, the beverage industry has had its share of tax fights across the country, and we have seen an outraged public get engaged in the fight. Like these folks in Binghamton who protested New York Gov. Paterson’s 18 percent tax on dozens of beverages including regular soft drinks, juice drinks and teas.

Eventually, Gov. Paterson pulled his tax off the table. We have to wonder what change, if anything, today’s tea parties will bring.

The conflicting approaches of President-elect Barack Obama and New York Gov. David Paterson matter because, when combined, the two plans would amount to little more than rearranging deck chairs. And the struggling American family won’t be on the road to recovery; in fact, they may be sent on a costly detour.

In Washington, the stated approach of the new administration is to invest in the middle-class family; to ease their daily financial burden. It’s an approach that clearly was embraced by a clear majority of voters this past fall.

But if governors, mayors and county executives deal with their parochial budget problems by raising the cost of everyday living on the average family, whatever investments and help Washington leaders deliver for families won’t matter.

The actions of Obama and Paterson (or any other state/local leader) are intertwined. They’re clinched together; one affecting the other, both affecting middle-class families.

That’s why we need to watch all levels of government right now. We can’t rally around Mr. Obama’s economic stimulus plan, but ignore a state tax plan like New York’s that raises taxes on families by $6 billion.

The math doesn’t work. It’s an overall loser for hard-working families, raising their cost of living and putting at risk their jobs. So we need to hold accountable leaders at all levels of government as we work together to recover from this harsh economy.

And, we continue to repeat the following quote here because our road to recovery must begin with this fundamental premise offered by Mr. Obama during the campaign:

“In an economy like this, the last thing we should be doing is raising taxes on the middle class.”

Together, we need to make sure this happens at all levels of government.

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Sip & Savor has dedicated most of this week to laying out some fundamental issues and facts about the economic recovery plans of our soon-to-be President and New York’s Governor. They’re illustrative of a major pratfall – the countervailing actions by federal and state/local government – that will result in a set-back rather than a stimulus to economic recovery. It’s a perspective that is being missed by the mainstream media right now. But one that we ignore at our own peril.

On occasion, we’ll dig deeper into current issues of relevance to this industry and its consumers, as we did this week with a focus on the impact of economic policies. Tomorrow, we’ll get back to mixing things up and having some fun as well. Like the ABBA post from last Friday.

One man wants to cut your taxes by anywhere from $500 to potentially $2,000 from what we’ve read thus far. The other man wants to raise New Yorkers taxes by an average of nearly $4,000.

The bottom line for that New York family: a several thousand dollar tax hike in the middle of a recession. Whoaa – that’s not what middle-class families were promised this fall. Nor is it remotely compassionate or fair given the struggles families are already facing in this deteriorating economy.

Mr. Obama made a very clear promise that helped get him elected: He would provide 95 percent of Americans with a tax cut. In some of his more memorable commercials he even provided a calculator where the average Jane and Joe could turn to figure out how big their tax cut would be.

Democrats rallied around that tax cut promise. After all, the families were hurting. Any promise to ease their financial burdens was eagerly embraced.

Since then, Mr. Obama is still talking about tax cuts, though he’s starting to manage expectations down about the size. Yet, he’s maintaining his commitment to cutting taxes for families and businesses that stimulate job growth and protection.

Gov. Paterson clearly didn’t get that tax cut memo. Rather, he was relatively quick to discard this political promise that helped sweep so many Democrats into office at the federal, state and local levels.

Instead, Gov. Paterson wrote his own memo titled: How to Tax Anything That Isn’t Nailed Down.

In December, just more than a month after Obama won the presidential election, and with the economy still in turmoil and worsening by the day, Gov. Paterson dropped a nuclear bomb of a tax hike: More than 137 increases in taxes and fees totaling $6 billion.

The tax hikes are a pure assault on everyday middle-class life. He hikes taxes on clothes, shoes, groceries including beverages, gas, cars, taxis, health care, cable and satellite TV, haircuts, movies and even discount coupons. And this is less than 10 percent of the list.

As a result, even if a President Obama delivers on his tax cut pledge, for New Yorkers, it will be overwhelmed and rendered meaningless by Gov. Paterson’s massive tax hikes.

The bottom line is this: The governor’s tax hikes will cost the average New York family $3,875.48 – roughly double the most optimistic tax cut that a President Obama might deliver.

This won’t help middle class families out of a recession. It’ll only add to their financial burdens.

Hard-working families are in a hole right now. Mr. Obama wants to provide an economic ladder to help them climb out of it. But Gov. Paterson is giving them a shovel full of tax cuts that will only dig a deeper hole for millions of families.

Or is that a backhoe he’s using?

Obama and his team warned over the weekend that unless immediate investments are made to protect and create jobs, unemployment could jump to 9 percent in short order. One can only wonder, then, if a return of double-digit jobless rates is just around the corner.

Gov. Paterson seeks to be a job killer. His proposed $6 billion in tax hikes on every day consumer products and services will destroy the jobs of hundreds of thousands of New York families. It will cost these families their health care. And it will significantly drive up the cost of living for them and all New Yorkers.

All this will happen at a time when families are struggling to hang onto their jobs, pay their bills and save their homes.

Former NY state economist Stephen Kagann projects that for every $100 million in new taxes imposed during a recession, 11,400 non-government jobs will be lost.

So $6 billion in tax and fee hikes would cost 600,000 New Yorkers their jobs. That’s 600,000 more New Yorkers out of work in the middle of a recession.

The Assembly Republican Ways and Means Committee estimates that these 600,000 lost jobs coupled with the 180,000 jobs the Paterson administration already estimates will be lost in 2009 means that 1 in 10 New Yorkers can expect to lose their jobs if the governor’s budget passes.

Once again, Gov. Paterson is delivering a jarring upper cut to President-elect Obama’s economic recovery goals. Worse, he’s delivering a sucker punch to already hurting New York families. We offer the benefit of the doubt that the governor isn’t trying to kill jobs, but that will indeed be the very real outcome of the budget agenda he is pursuing.

It’s one thing to undermine the agenda of the soon-to-be president from your own political party. It’s a far more grave thing to undercut the hard-working families you serve. All for the cause of getting out of a political jam — a budget deficit that government created by spending beyond its means for years.

So, once again, the middle-class family is being asked to pay for the sins of its government. And in this case, 600,000 New Yorkers stand to pay for these sins with their jobs.

A harsh blow to hard-working New York families in such harsh economic times.