In November, Attorney General Bill Sorrell’s office released a report on overweight and obese Vermonters. Among its recommendations was a call for a soda tax. Sorrell says that public health expenditures linked to obesity is in the hundreds of millions.
Nicole Lucas of the American Heart Association says that sugar-sweetened beverages are the largest contributors of calories from added sugars to our diets. She says that all projections indicate that the soda tax will have a similar impact as tobacco taxes. Jim Harrison, president of the Vermont Grocers Association, believes that taxes aren’t the way to get us back into a healthy balance between caloric intake and calories expended through physical activity.
Click listen to hear Bob Kinzel’s interview with Lucas and Harrison debating the need for a soda tax in Vermont.