Cigarette Taxes work in #Philadelphia: Time to Expand to Fructose Soda and Snacks https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20141028130910-8125533-cigarette-taxes-work-in-philadelphia-time-to-expand-to-fructose-soda-and-snacks #philly #obesity
Early this month the City of Philadelphia introduced a tax
on cigarettes of at least $2.00. The tax
increase represented a 30% increase for high end cigarettes (Newport 100s) and
35% for the cheap brands (something called Maverick). The cigarette tax was introduced to close a
$81 million gap in the Philadelphia Public School budget. The school system almost shut down due to a
lack of funding.
Estimates indicate that nearly 5% - 10% of smokers in Philly
will quit smoking each year that the tax is in force. There are certainly people that will get
their fix by going to adjacent counties to buy cheaper cigs such as Delaware County,
Montgomery County, and Bucks County. The
city believes that the tax will bring in about $49 million to help fund child
education. I’ve seen firsthand that
there are definitely people that have “kicked the habit.”
Over the next decade, there will certainly be an impact on
healthcare costs in the region as smoking related illnesses and
hospitalizations will decrease. The
initial impact of the cigarette tax on successfully decreasing smoking is a
positive indication that a tax on high fat, high sodium and high fructose
snacks and soda will also be successful.
The cigarette tax was introduced to help fund a child’s education. The Sugar Snack Tax will help enhance the
health and wellbeing of children.
A walk through stores in Philly demonstrates that kids are
devouring really bad fat, salt, and sugary snacks and soda at an alarming
rate. These children will become obese
and become early candidates for chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart
disease. Everyone should be engaged in
this issue because the public as a whole will eventually pay for the healthcare
and lost productivity of these children as they become young adults. Changing patterns in early childhood will
generate significant individual and social benefits in the future.
There will always be people and businesses that take
advantage of the situation. The
cigarette tax has caused a windfall in profits for adjacent counties. For instance, a nearby Wawa convenience store
has increased sales by over 100% from $12,000 per day to over $24,000 per day
or an extra $4,000,000 per year. It is
possible that there will be a “high fructose soda and snack food” black market. But, the benefit far outweighs any costs and
arguments against a “snack tax.”
In 2008 I created, VitaminSpice, a unique product that
increased the amount of vitamins in foods, spices, and condiments. I spent a lot of time reviewing the snack and
soda industry in an effort to identify effective mechanisms to enhance the
nutrition of snack products. A company
called Raylicious
www.rayssnacks.com produces a “Honey Bun” that has 75% of the recommended
daily intake of saturated fat. No
product sold to children should have over 30% of saturated fat in its recipe. The
same “Honey Bun” has 18% of the daily carbohydrate recommended intake. This is an outrage that needs attention.
These “Sugar Fat Snacks” are also available through various
government funded “nutrition” programs such as food stamps. Therefor everyone is paying for children to
get fat an eventually succumb to chronic disease. The Cigarette tax appears to be making a dent
in decreasing smoking. It is time to
attack the obesity epidemic in a similar manner and help children become
healthier and happier. Why go to all of the
trouble of ensuring an education for children if they are going to be incapacitated
by chronic illness and / or dead at an early age.
