{"id":15637,"date":"2014-10-28T18:53:29","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T18:53:29","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-10-28T18:53:29","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T18:53:29","slug":"bay-area-beverage-taxes-draw-big-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2014\/10\/28\/bay-area-beverage-taxes-draw-big-cash\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area Beverage Taxes Draw Big Cash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" align=right src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MepXBJjsNxs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><i>Sugary beverage taxes are focus of big spending in Berkeley and San Francisco<\/i><\/p>\n<p>by Brian Leubitz<\/p>\n<p>If you are in the Bay Area, you won&#8217;t be surprised to hear that the beverage association and its member companies have spent quite the hefty total on the two measures. But the number still may seem excessive:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Along Berkeley&#8217;s main streets and in the underground subways here, advertisements blasting the proposed soda tax are everywhere. The American Beverage Association, the soda industry&#8217;s lobbying group, has spent some $1.7 million dollars fighting the measure in Berkeley, and $7.7 million in San Francisco, according to campaign filings. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scpr.org\/news\/2014\/10\/27\/47688\/soda-makers-try-to-take-fizz-out-of-bay-area-tax-c\/\">NPR<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now that&#8217;s just plain stupid money in a local ballot measure. It means that TV commercials and mailers are ubiquitous, and that some slate mailers are running <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/bayarea\/article\/Milk-club-Dems-line-up-with-soda-industry-on-5708260.php\">some sketchy campaigns for other candidates on the back of the soda tax measure<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But all that money isn&#8217;t just one sided, as former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg has also <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.sfgate.com\/nov05election\/2014\/10\/24\/ex-nyc-mayor-bloomberg-buys-world-series-ad-to-push-berkeley-soda-tax\/\">bought some TV time during the World Series<\/a> to support Berkeley&#8217;s measure.<\/p>\n<p>All this being said, I voted Yes on SF&#8217;s Prop E, our soda tax. It requires a 2\/3 vote, as it is targeted for specific funding goals, and that is a big haul. But SF Supervisors Wiener and Mar have done their homework on the measure, and it could end being a tight vote. The Berkeley measure only requires a majority vote, so expect that race to get a lot of focus on election day. It may be the first such measure to pass. KQED&#8217;s Forum had a fascinating debate on both measures:<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"335\" height=\"85\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.kqed.org\/assets\/flash\/kqedplayer.swf\"><\/param><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"file=http:\/\/www.kqed.org\/radio\/archives\/R201409290900.xml\"><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n<p>John Oliver had a great segment on sugar, it&#8217;s worth a watch in the video up top.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" align=right src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MepXBJjsNxs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><i>Sugary beverage taxes are focus of big spending in Berkeley and San Francisco<\/i><\/p>\n<p>by Brian Leubitz<\/p>\n<p>If you are in the Bay Area, you won&#8217;t be surprised to hear that the beverage association and its member companies have spent quite the hefty total on the two measures. But the number still may seem excessive:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Along Berkeley&#8217;s main streets and in the underground subways here, advertisements blasting the proposed soda tax are everywhere. The American Beverage Association, the soda industry&#8217;s lobbying group, has spent some $1.7 million dollars fighting the measure in Berkeley, and $7.7 million in San Francisco, according to campaign filings. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scpr.org\/news\/2014\/10\/27\/47688\/soda-makers-try-to-take-fizz-out-of-bay-area-tax-c\/\">NPR<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now that&#8217;s just plain stupid money in a local ballot measure. It means that TV commercials and mailers are ubiquitous, and that some slate mailers are running <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/bayarea\/article\/Milk-club-Dems-line-up-with-soda-industry-on-5708260.php\">some sketchy campaigns for other candidates on the back of the soda tax measure<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But all that money isn&#8217;t just one sided, as former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg has also <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.sfgate.com\/nov05election\/2014\/10\/24\/ex-nyc-mayor-bloomberg-buys-world-series-ad-to-push-berkeley-soda-tax\/\">bought some TV time during the World Series<\/a> to support Berkeley&#8217;s measure.<\/p>\n<p>All this being said, I voted Yes on SF&#8217;s Prop E, our soda tax. It requires a 2\/3 vote, as it is targeted for specific funding goals, and that is a big haul. But SF Supervisors Wiener and Mar have done their homework on the measure, and it could end being a tight vote. The Berkeley measure only requires a majority vote, so expect that race to get a lot of focus on election day. It may be the first such measure to pass. KQED&#8217;s Forum had a fascinating debate on both measures:<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"335\" height=\"85\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.kqed.org\/assets\/flash\/kqedplayer.swf\"><\/param><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"file=http:\/\/www.kqed.org\/radio\/archives\/R201409290900.xml\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.kqed.org\/assets\/flash\/kqedplayer.swf\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"335\" height=\"85\" flashvars=\"file=http:\/\/www.kqed.org\/radio\/archives\/R201409290900.xml\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>John Oliver had a great segment on sugar, it&#8217;s worth a watch in the video up top.<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-44d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}