New Seattle Soda Tax Kicks In Monday

SEATTLE, WA - Prices of sugar-sweetened drinks in Seattle are going up New Year's Day when the "sweetened beverage tax" goes into effect. Seattle's soda tax adds 1.75 cents per ounce to the price of any drink with added sugar, with some exceptions. That means a typical 16 ounce bottle of non-diet soda will cost about 28 cents more.

Revenue generated by the tax will go to fund a variety of city programs from reducing the education achievement gap to promoting nutrition. Seattle estimates the tax will bring in about $15 million in 2018, and about 20 percent of that will go toward administering the tax.

Diet sodas are among the drinks excluded from the tax (others include drinks where milk is the primary ingredient, 100 percent juice drinks, and alcoholic drinks that contain sugar). Whether to include diet drinks was a major issue for the City Council when the law was passed in June.

In a June letter to the Council and then-mayor Ed Murray, the Seattle Human Rights Commission said that not including diet drinks "exacerbates" racial and socioeconomic inequality. That's because diet drinks are usually consumed by wealthier people.

"We urge the City Council and Mayor to again include artificially sweetened beverages in the impending sweetened beverage tax to reduce the relative burdens upon socioeconomically disadvantaged Seattle residents," the commission wrote.

Councilwoman Lisa Herbold tried and failed to get diet drinks added to the tax. Councilman Tim Burgess said it was better to keep diet drinks available as a cheaper alternative to sugary drinks.

Researchers with the University of Washington Department of Health Services will be studying whether the tax helps reduce consumption of sugary drinks.

San Francisco and Philadelphia also have soda taxes, but Seattle's is the most expensive of the three.

Photo by Jeff Chiu/Associated Press