Political pressure is mounting for the Vermont Legislature to support a tax on sweet drinks.
An unusually large coalition of lobbying groups – including the Vermont-NEA, the Vermont Medical Society and the Vermont Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance among a total of 18 organizations – came to the statehouse to make their pitch to the media on Friday afternoon. (No lawmakers were present – the Legislature doesn’t convene until Jan. 5.)
A pediatrician, medical school professor, dental advocate and childcare administrator each represented The Alliance for a Healthier Vermont and explained why they support a bill that would place a 1-cent-per-ounce excise tax on “sugar sweetened beverages” or SSBs.
From behind a veritable wall of sugary sodas, sweetened teas, punch and “sports drinks,” representing the 45 gallons that Vermonters on average consume annually, the advocates for the bill talked about the connection between the consumption of high-caloric beverages with an increase in obesity rates in Vermont. They pointed to scientific studies that show a correlation between consumption of sugary drinks and excess weight, and they suggested that the new tax would lower the incidence of obesity among Vermonters by 20 percent. The tax would raise $30 million, an amount that they proposed could be used to provide obesity prevention educational outreach programs and shore up state-funded health care programs.
Peter Sterling, the event organizer and executive director of Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security, said obesity contributes $179 million to the state’s annual health care costs.
The onset of child obesity is particularly troubling, he said. Children ages two to 18 now obtain more calories from sugar sweetened beverages than milk on a daily basis.
The American Cancer Society is one of the members of the Alliance. The organization draws a direct correlation between cancer and obesity. According to the Society, 14 to 20 percent all cancer deaths have been tied to obesity. Being overweight has also been linked to increased risk for common cancers, including colon, esophagus, kidney, endometrial and breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
Children ages two to 18 now obtain more calories from sugar sweetened beverages than milk on a daily basis.
Two weeks ago, Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell issued the report, “The Vermont Healthy Weight Initiative,” and he proposed that Vermont lawmakers pass an excise tax on sweet drinks. (The tax would be tacked on to the wholesale cost of beverages so that retailers wouldn’t have to calculate the amount.)
Members of the Alliance took the findings of the report a step forward and announced their intent to lobby for a bill sponsored by Rep. George Till, D-Jericho, a physician and a member of the House Health Care Committee.
Download a copy of the report: Attorney General Vermont Healthy Weight Initiative
Sorrell in his report argues that while Vermont’s obesity rates are lower than most other states, there has been a significant increase in the number of Vermonters who have a high body mass index.
“The prevalence of obesity among Vermont adults doubled between 1990 and 2007,” he wrote.
An excise tax is projected to reduce consumption of sugar sweetened beverages by 23 percent to 24 percent, according to Till.
The $30 million in new revenues generated from the tax would subsidize the purchase of fruits and vegetables for the Women, Infants and Children food supplement program ($7.3 million); fund a revolving loan program for small retail shops for the purchase of efficient refrigeration units for produce ($600,000); a boost to the Electronic Benefits Transfer program, which allows food stamps recipients to buy food at farmer’s markets ($210,000); staffing wellness education programs ($140,000); a subsidy for school meals ($450,000); nutrition and wellness staff at the Department of Education ($231,000); a community support agriculture coordinator at the Agency of Agriculture ($70,000); grants for prevention, nutrition and physical activity programs in communities ($2 million); a $1 million fund to help create “walkability” improvements to downtowns; $2 million for the Fund for the Promotion of Health Weight; $500,000 for the rigorous surveillance of state programs addressing obesity.
Foes of the excise tax are lining up.
At the time Sorrell’s report was released, the Vermont Grocers Association came out against the proposal because it would put Vermont grocery stores along the New Hampshire border at a disadvantage.
Petitions protesting the tax popped up at convenience stores the next day.
According to the Burlington Free Press, the Beverage Association of Vermont issued a statement Friday afternoon, saying it was unfair to single out sugar-sweetened beverages.
The unsweetened political waters
Rep. George Till, the sponsor of the bill, said obesity is a major cost-driver for medical expenditures. He said the state can’t rein in its budget until “we control the increasing rate of health care costs and get serious about prevention.”
Till said smoking-related illnesses cost the state about $72 million — less than half the cost of obesity, which is now at $179 million and rising. About 22 percent of Vermonters are overweight and that number is expected to grow to 40 percent.
“This is not about personal freedoms,” Till said. “This is about paying for what you choose to do. Right now, everyone else is paying for my bad choices about food. When you’re paying premiums, you’re paying extra for obesity related issues.”
Gov.-elect Peter Shumlin has said he opposes an excise tax on sugary drinks.
The proposal has generated a lukewarm response from two key lawmakers — Rep. Janet Ancel, D-Calais, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which is the clearinghouse for all revenue generating proposals, and Speaker of the House Shap Smith.
Ancel gave the concept a thumbs-up, but she said the devil would be in the details.
Ancel: “I do have a concern, and other people share it, about how this will impact small retailers along the border.”
“The general outline of an initiative on obesity and using an excise tax to support that makes a lot of sense to me,” Ancel said. “I do have a concern, and other people share it, about how this will impact small retailers along the border. That would be something we would need to spend time understanding and finding a way to soften that impact. That’s a legitimate concern.”
Sterling countered that the excise tax would be unlikely to affect cross border sales because the total increase would be very small. The total cost of a liter of soda would increase about 30 cents, for example.
As for using the money to help fill the $112 million General Fund gap? Ancel said, fuggedaboutit.
“The one thing I do agree with – if we enact an excise tax — we need to use it for health care,” Ancel said. “I would not support it to going into General Fund expenditures.”
Speaker Smith says if the consumption tax is designed to change behavior — to discourage Vermonters from buying sugary drinks — he questions whether it would raise revenue over the long haul.
“Are you raising revenue?” Smith asked. “Or, are you changing behavior? How are you going to do both?”
A case for cutting consumption
Dr. Louis DiNicola, a pediatrician at Gifford Hospital and president of the Vermont chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said obesity is an “epidemic” and the single biggest threat to Vermonters’ health.
DiNicola said when he first came to Vermont he didn’t see any patients over 350 pounds. He has recently treated several children who weigh more than 400 pounds and he has one patient who is over 500 pounds.
“We had to refurbish our hospital with scales that went up to 500 pounds — all the old scales were topped at 350,” DiNicola said. “One young man had to be weighed on a shipping scale.”
DiNicola said he had a 5-year-old patient who couldn’t climb on an exam table because he was so overweight.
One-third of all cases of diabetes in children, he said, are now adult onset, caused by obesity. Not long ago, he said, all of the cases were juvenile diabetes.
DiNicola: “Nothing trumped the fact that when you raise the tax on cigarettes the incidence of smoking went down.”
He compared the SSB tax to the tax on cigarettes. Though advocacy groups succeeded in taking the Joe Camel ads aimed at children age 10 and 11 off the air, DiNicola said “nothing trumped the fact that when you raise the tax on cigarettes the incidence of smoking went down.”
“There is evidence now that will work for this problem,” DiNicola said.
Marianne Miller, the director of the Central Vermont Head Start program, said she sees parents who cannot interact with their children because of their obesity.
“Parents are the most important teachers of their children when they aren’t able to take walks or get on the floor that teaches children about a sedentary lifestyle,” Miller said.
Obese children are often targets for bullies. “Not only does obesity have a terrible health impact it has a psychological impact that is lifelong,” Miller said.
Dr. Rachel Johnson, a UVM professor of medicine, said over the past 40 years the amount of consumption of sugar sweetened beverages has gone up by 222 calories per day per person. A study she cited indicated that consumption of one sweet drink a day significantly increases the chances of a patient developing hypertension.
“Soft drinks are the No. 1 source of calories for teenage boys and girls,” Johnson said. “The average American teenage boy drinks 24 ounces and 300 calories a day and the average American teenage girl more than 16 ounces and 200 calories.”
Why is the alliance focused on SSBs and not junk food? Research shows that calories in liquids are less satiating and contribute to a higher total calorie intake per day, Johnson said.
The Alliance is spending about $22,000 on its campaign to persuade lawmakers to pass an excise tax, according to Sterling.
