Billionaires put pop in advocates' push for soda taxes

Voters and lawmakers in five municipalities such as San Francisco and the county that includes Chicago approved special taxes on sugary drinks last week, with advocates saying the victories point to a change in public attitudes and the beginnings of a movement.

What's also changed, though, is that they're now backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who as mayor of New York lost a bruising fight to limit the size of sugary drinks.

Seven U.S. cities now have special, per-ounce taxes on sugary drinks.

The long-term effects of such taxes still aren't clear, with studies of recently enacted measures still in progress — some of them funded by $10.5 million Bloomberg dedicated to such research.

Even if taxes of 1 or 2 cents per ounce hike prices about 10 percent and don't affect how much soda people drink, the industry fears the stigma of being singled out and the potential for the taxes to be increased.

[...] soda consumption has been declining, though other sweetened drinks such as sports beverages and bottled teas have grown, and obesity rates keep climbing.

Wolfson said other cities will want to replicate the successful efforts to raise revenue, improve public health, or both.

The strategy, named for what Coke calls its "sparkling" sodas, involved a "coordinated plan of action" with local food and drink trade groups and lobbying key contacts in the agriculture and economy ministries to "maintain opposition."

When Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton expressed support for Philadelphia's beverage tax, an executive from Coca-Cola — which gave between $5 million to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation — vented to a consultant for the company, who had worked for Clinton at the State Department.