Edina High School social studies teacher Elizabeth Nimmo, a former one-a-day diet coke addict recently announced to her 6th period class that she was giving up diet coke. “I was feeling guilty about drinking diet coke at school…you know, like I wasn’t being a very good role model.” Ms. Nimmo’s wake up call was a news report about the negative health effects of drinking pop such as heart attacks and strokes.
The ill effects of pop have caught the attention of government officials as well. First introduced inNew York, propositions for a tax on pop made little progress and was voted against at every turn. NowMinnesotais looking to adopt a pop tax, but will it be shot down like in other states?
The tax is a good idea; the profit made from the proposed tax would not only raise money for the state, but encourage healthy behavior among Minnesotans as well.
With Minnesota’s adult obesity rate at 25.5%, a tax on the sugary drink is just what the doctor ordered. In the Minnesota Daily, the Health Commissioner Dr. Dan Frieden claimed that the tax would raise $1.2 billion for the state while also reducing consumption of pop by 10%.
While the proposed pop tax had no effect on Ms. Nimmo’s decision, she said “the fact that there is such a tax proposal implies that drinking soda pop can’t possibly be good for you.”
Some people find the proposed tax to be overreaching and that the government is playing on Minnesotan’s addictions to make a quick buck, but in fact, this wouldn’t be the first tax imposed on an unhealthy product in Minnesota.
Minnesotahas a tax rate on cigarettes is at $1.586 per pack. This tax is meant to discourage smoking by putting a financial strain on smoker’s wallets.
In addition to encouraging healthful behavior, money raised from the proposed tax would help our state with its current deficit, which is estimated at $5 billion.
According to an article written by Roger Feldman in the Star Tribune, the majority of pop tax proposals ”
call for a small tax, such as two cents per 12-ounce can, which would raise the cost of a 12-pack (now $4.80, on average) by 5 percent.” making the average cost of a 12-pack $5.04. By Feldman’s estimates, the average American family would pay about $6.86 more per year in taxes, and theU.S.would raise roughly $36 million in a year on pop tax alone.
Future funds raised by a Minnesota tax on pop could not only help Minnesota’s government with the deficit, but the money could be used to fund social programs to help lower the obesity rate of Minnesota.
