Fizzled Out: How Big Soda uses crafty legislation to defeat taxes on sugary drinks

Director Kim Haddow is quoted in Clint Rainey’s July 5, 2018 Grub Street article, Fizzled Out, How Big Soda uses crafty legislation to defeat taxes on sugary drinks. Lawmakers in California recently voted on Senate Bill 872, a piece of legislature that included, among other things, a move to bar any new local soda taxes until the year 2031.

“They’re going right where activists have put laws on the books,” says Kim Haddow, director of the Local Solutions Support Center, noting that Big Soda is already busy trying to replicate its success elsewhere. Philadelphia’s soda tax is now threatened by a state preemption law, and voters in Washington, where Seattle has a tax, could see a ballot measure in November. (Despite an absence of soda taxes, Arizona passed its own preemption law with little fanfare in March.)”