by Art Young

Created on: January 23, 2009

If there was any doubt that "sugary" drinks have become the new cigarettes among the health conscious, you might want to cast your gaze to the Empire State. That's where Governor David Paterson has proposed a new soda tax.

New York's chief executive has suggested an 18% sales tax on soft drinks and other non-diet sugary beverages. His administration believes that this tax will raise about $400 million a year which can be used to stem the tide of red ink in the state's budget.

Make no mistake. This is a new "sin" tax similar to that levied on cigarettes and liquor. Whether you think that it is good public policy to tax unhealthy behavior and then use that revenue to fill the states coffers is another discussion for another day.

The primary fact is this. Making products more expensive will have the effect of decreasing their consumption. Period. Some would contend that if this tax has this effect, the cost-savings from treating the diseases associated with childhood and adult obesity trumps any philosophical differences you might have about robbing Peter to pay down the state deficit.

So, will this new soda tax have this effect? It most assuredly will.

In a recent "New York Times" editorial, Nicholas Kristof made these very astute points:

The biggest health care breakthrough in the U.S. in the last 40 years was NOT heart bypasses, CAT scans, MRI's or cancer treatment. It was the cigarette tax.

Every 10% price increase on cigarettes reduced sales by 3% overall and 7 % (!) among teenagers.

In 1983 alone, the increase in the federal tax on cigarettes saved more than 40,000 lives per year.

Thus, Kristof noted, the most promising "cure" for lung cancer did NOT emerge from a medical research lab, but rather from the politicians who taxed the primary cause for the cancer, tobacco. It seems logical that best cure for obesity might come from the same kind of public policy.

A nutrition expert, Barry Popkin, from the University of North Carolina has noted in his book, "The World is Fat" that "soft drinks are linked to diabetes and obesity in the way that tobacco is to lung cancer." It is not a coincidence that the average American is estimated to consume about 35 gallons of non-diet soda each year and get far more added sugar from soft drinks that from edible sweets.

However, if I were the state of New York, I wouldn't be counting this tax money just yet.

Don't expect the folks who sell us all of this carbonated water to go quietly into the dark night. The beverage industry is massive and they can be counted on to bring lawyers, guns and money to defeating this tax policy.

This is reminiscent of the response of big tobacco about a generation ago. We've all seen how that turned out.

There are many reasons for the obesity epidemic. These include high fat, empty calorie fast food, sweet and salty snacks, skyrocketing crime in some neighborhoods that force children to stay inside instead of playing outside and the sedentary lifestyle where kids would rather watch mindless television or play endless video games.

It's the Internet. It's the parents. It's "No Child Left Behind" which precludes funding for physical education. It's a wide range of seemingly intractable forces that encourage kids and adults to be obese and unhealthy.

There is one thing for certain. If New York succeeds passing this 18% tax on sugary drinks and it has the effect of reducing the diseases associated with chronic obesity while adding new money to the state coffers, there will be 49 other states ready to enact the same policy.

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