Philly Soda Tax Continues To ‘Disappoint’

zerohedge.com / Via Political Calculations blog / Dec 7, 2017 2:29 PM

The City of Philadelphia’s tax collections from its controversial tax on sweetened beverages are continuing to fall well short of the levels that the city’s politicians desired. For taxes assessed on sales from January 2017 through preliminary data for October 2017, total beverage tax collections in the city are running over 14% below the amount that city officials were counting upon to support their desired level of spending for a new “free” pre-K school programs, to cover a portion of the debt that the city will take on to make physical improvements to parks, libraries and recreation centers, and also to fund benefits for city employees.

In the chart above, we’ve projected the amount of tax collections that Philadelphia would need to collect in each month of the year to reach its annual target of $92.4 million if sales of the sweetened beverages distributed in the city followed the seasonal pattern for soft drink distribution in the United States, which we’ve shown in blue. Meanwhile, we’ve shown the actual tax collections that Philadelphia’s revenue department has taken in from the tax assessed in the indicated months in red. As you can see, the city’s actual sweetened beverage tax collections have continually fallen anywhere from 4% to 21% short of the monthly revenue targets needed to meet their annual revenue target.

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