Oakland, San Francisco Mayors join forces to advocate for soda tax proposals

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - City officials from both Oakland and San Francisco announced the launch of campaigns for two separate proposals in which voters in both cities will decide whether to tax distributors of sugary beverages.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf joined San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee on the steps of San Francisco City Hall this morning, along with San Francisco Supervisor Malia Cohen, to discuss the measures.

Citing heart disease and diabetes as a result of the consumption of sweet drinks, the two initiatives, Proposition V in San Francisco and Measure HH in Oakland, both propose a fee of one-cent per ounce of soda and other sugary beverages.

The tax would be paid by the distributors of the drinks, according to advocates of the proposals.

"Our cities are facing an epidemic of health problems directly attributable to sugary beverages, which includes diabetes, obesity, heart disease. And it's a fact these diseases are killing us. We've had enough and we are doing something about this crisis," Cohen said. "The beverage companies are spending more than $28 million a year on marketing campaigns specifically targeting African Americans and Latino youth. Is this a coincidence? No this not a coincidence. For far too long, most of our vulnerable communities have been suffering because of the sugary beverages industry and the disease that they cause," Cohen said.

"As an individual, as a parent, as a leader in this city, we've got to all work together collaboratively," Lee said of the two proposals, before adding that he had stopped drinking soda years ago at the request of his wife.

Oakland's measure HH is being opposed by more than 280 storeowners who call themselves the No Oakland Grocery Tax Campaign, which is funded in part by the Washington D.C.-based American Beverage Association.

The association has already started its own campaign against the measure, running advertisements sent by mail to Oakland voters and broadcast on television.

Last month, owners of small grocery stores in both Oakland and San Francisco expressed concern about the proposed one-cent tax.

During a news conference in Oakland, the owners said the tax would force them to raise the price on all items, not just beverages, in order to absorb the added cost.

"In Oakland they're running a shamefully deceptive campaign, calling this a grocery tax. We need to be clear; Measure HH and Prop V are not grocery taxes. In fact, these are taxes on distributors of death-causing sugary beverages. That's what this tax is on. In fact this tax is an incentive for people to purchase and afford healthy food as groceries. They don't want you to know their dirty secret, and that is that their products are deadly," Schaaf said.

"This is particularly important in diverse communities like Oakland and San Francisco because the people who are really paying the price are our communities of color," Schaaf added.

Today, a spokesman for the No Grocery Tax Campaign responded to the joint campaigns in Oakland and San Francisco. "Both Proposition V in San Francisco and Measure HH in Oakland tax the distributors of sugar-sweetened beverages - these are the mom and pop shops that are already struggling to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of doing business in the Bay Area.

That is why hundreds of these small business owners have joined campaigns to oppose these measures, calling on their politicians to focus on the real issues at hand - affordable housing, homelessness, public safety - not on taxing groceries," No Grocery Tax Campaign spokesman Joe Arellano said.

In November 2014, the city of Berkeley passed a similar measure, becoming the first city in the country to do so.

In a recently published study from the University of California at Berkeley, researchers found a 21 percent drop in the consumption of soda and other sugary beverages in Berkeley's low-income neighborhoods following the passing of the one-cent per ounce tax.

In November, residents in the neighboring city of Albany will also be faced with a similar sugary beverage tax measure on their ballots.