NY’s Soda Tax: Party On, Dr. Daines

I’m clearly not showing you this video for its production values.  At best, it’s reminiscent of Mr. Wizard, at worst of Wayne and Garth.  But for all the jokes cracked at the expense of Gov. David Paterson’s proposed tax on soda and sugar-added beverages, there are real issues at play that impact on the cost and quality of our health care system.  This would be worth doing even if the state weren’t in fiscal crisis.

First, some background:  Gov. Paterson released a plan of cutting services and added taxes to try to bring New York state’s budget deficit under control.  It’s a toss-up as to whether the proposed tax on soda or iTunes downloads has prompted the most outrage.  Liberals are upset because what Paterson’s bevy of procedural taxes instead of restructuring the state income tax to be more progressive seems like weak tea.  Conservatives are upset because it’s a new tax, period, and easily risible one.  And Mountain Dew drinkers from Buffalo to Brooklyn are wailing and gnashing their teeth.  In the most recent poll, 60% of New Yorkers oppose the soda tax.

But unlike the iTunes tax or any of the other fees in the Paterson plan, there’s a clear intent to raise awareness and modify behavior on sugar consumption and how that relates to obesity in general, and child obesity in particular – a topic so important, it made our list of Top 5 Controversies in health care.

There’s no doubt that one of the reasons why our sugar intake has grown by leaps and bounds since 1970 is lack of awareness.  We expect that a slab of steak is going to be high in calories.  We’ve gotten the word that eating fried food is bad for you.  We recognize that candy is chock full of sugar – indeed, that’s the point. But who suspects ill-intent in Juicy Juice?  Coke and Pepsi are so omnipresent and so cheap that they’ve become the default for American consumers – they’re what you order when you don’t know what to order.  Often this is unconsciously influenced by economics – if 2 quarts of organic orange juice costs $3 and a 2 liter of soda costs $1.50, people buy more soda.  If the diet root beer costs $1.50 but the regular root beer costs $1.75, the shoe’s on the other foot.

Dr. Richard Daines, who is the head of the New York State Dept., may not have the production values of MTV (heck, these aren’t the production values of PBS), but he’s got something more potent – the hard facts about what our consumption behavior does to our health.  5 cents extra per soda is not likely to break anyone’s budget, but you may over time reach for Diet Dr. Pepper instead of regular Dr. Pepper.  Even better, people may learn the reasons why the sugary stuff is taxed more and begin to make informed choices rather than unconscious choices.  Either way, our health and our health care system wins.