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Oregon and Washington state residents voted yesterday on initiatives described as anti-grocery tax measures by supporters and industry-funded soda tax bans by critics. The two measures came to very different ends. In Oregon, the measure was defeated, while the Washington state initiative appears now to have been approved.
Oregon’s Measure 103 would have amended the state constitution to prohibit the state and local governments from passing taxes on groceries, defined as “raw or processed food or beverages intended for human consumption, excluding alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana.”
In Washington, Initiative 1634, or the Prohibit Local Taxes on Groceries initiative, prohibits local governments from passing new taxes or fees on groceries. While the initiative wouldn’t repeal the Seattle soda tax that went into effect January 2018, it would prevent other cities and local governments in the state from passing similar taxes.
Critics of the Oregon law argued the measure was overly broad and confusing, warning it could apply to food served in restaurants too, though its drafters say that was not the intent. But, more broadly, critics of both measures say the true purpose of these laws was not to prevent taxes on groceries or rising food costs, but rather to ban soda taxes altogether.
Laura MacCleery, policy director for Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group that opposes both measures, called these efforts the “tried and true strategy of interests that are hostile to public health,” pointing to what MacCleery describes as a similar strategy deployed by the tobacco industry in opposing city ordinances aimed at secondhand smoke.
The Oregon measure was supported by the Yes! Keep Our Groceries Tax Free committee, which received campaign donations from the Northwest Grocery Association and the American Beverage Association.
The American Beverage Association, a soda industry trade group, was a major donor in support of both the Oregon and Washington measures. On its website, the ABA describes soda taxes as ineffective, discriminatory to the poor and responsible for increasing food costs.
At least one researcher agrees that local soda taxes aren’t necessarily so effective. Brian Bollinger, an assistant marketing professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, studied the impacts of the Berkeley, California tax and found it wasn’t effective primarily because the tax wasn’t usually passed onto consumers (prices remained mostly the same at grocery stores) and because many soda drinkers could just go to nearby cities to avoid paying the increase.
However, many public health researchers disagree, arguing that while less than 100% pass through to consumers and border cities with different tax rules can reduce efficacy, overall these taxes do reduce consumption and allow communities to raise money in the process. CSPI’s MacCleery says Seattle has raised millions of dollars through its soda tax, which she describes as “money that goes back into the community.”
Opposition to the Oregon measure received over $1 million in a donation from former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg has donated to multiple soda tax campaigns in cities across the country, though as mayor of New York City, his efforts to enact a soda tax were ultimately unsuccessful.
The Yes to Affordable Groceries committee was the primary supporter of the Washington state measure, reporting donations from soda companies like Coca Cola, Pepsico and Keurig-Dr. Pepper. The committee spent over $20 million on efforts to pass this initiative, while its opponent, the Healthy Kids Coalition, spent only around $13,000.
In Oregon, on the other hand, where the measure failed, spending by supporters and opponents were nearly equal: $7,363,701.78 spent in support; $6,950,778.31 to defeat. Dan Floyd, spokesman for the Yes! Keep Groceries Tax Fee campaign, said, by email, that the group is “disappointed” to see the defeat of Measure 103, and hopes grocery taxes do not become a reality.
CSPI’s MacCleery says all public health efforts against soda, including taxes, are a good idea. “We badly need to accelerate the current momentum against soda,” she says. “The soda taxes that localities have enacted are a response to a real public health crisis.”
