Rhode Islanders Against the Beverage Tax

Beverage Tax On The Horizon

admin — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:04:13 +0000

Some Rhode Island legislators are sponsoring a bill that would impose a “1 cent per once tax on sugar sweetened beverages.” The bill defines sugar sweetened beverages as anything with an added “high-calorie sweetener.” This means that many of your favorite drinks could be increasing in price. Click below to read more.

http://ballotnews.org/2013/02/10/soda-tax-on-rhode-island-legislators-agenda/

Center For Consumer Freedom Speaks Out

admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:05:40 +0000

The Center for Consumer Freedom has taken a public stand against a proposed beverage tax. The organization claims the tax is “absurdly misguided when it comes to promoting weight loss.” Proponents of the bill argue that the bill is a reasonable response to the state’s 25.4% obesity rate among adults. Click below to read more.

http://www.nacsonline.com/NACS/News/Daily/Pages/ND0206133.aspx

Tax Would Include Sodas, Sports Drinks and Energy Drinks

admin — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 20:11:16 +0000

Rhode Island lawmakers have proposed a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, in response to obesity rates within the state. Restaurants and retails are arguing that another tax will only hurt business. The tax would increase the price of any gallon size sugar-sweetened beverage by $1.28. Click below to read more.

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/12_for_action/proposed-tax-on-sugary-drinks

RI beverage companies blast proposed soda tax

admin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:06:45 +0000

Advocates for a penny per once tax on beverages are once again pressuring the state legislature to implement this regressive tax on Rhode Islanders and their community businesses. Last year a similar tax was shelved because of the harm it would cause to the Rhode Island economy. While supporters claim the tax to be a step towards healthier lifestyles, beverage-relate businesses state that it is unfair to single out one industry or product when it is the sugar intake of Americans whole diets that affect their waistlines. Steven Perrelli, general manager of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Southeastern New England Inc., stated that, “Moderation is the only answer. Taxation is not the answer.”

Read the complete article at Boston.com

Looking Beyond Headlines about Recent Heart Research

admin — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:51:17 +0000

Founder of the Hispanic Food Communications, registered dietitian and certified personal trainer, Sylvia Melendez-Klinger, demystifies the medical jargon of the recent article titled “Sugary Drinks Can Be Hard on Heart: Study”. Without fear-mongering or double-speak, Ms. Melendez-Klinger gives honesty advice about heart health and balanced nutrition that every American should consider.

Read the complete article in Hispanically Speaking News

Many Americans Ambivalent Over Laws Aimed at Healthy Living: Poll

admin — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:15:45 +0000

Most accept rules for safety, smoking, eating, but also worry about a ‘nanny state’

NORWALK, Conn., USA – March 20, 2012 – With a recent flood of new regulations or proposals aimed at governing lifestyle choices such as smoking, eating or cellphone use, is the United States in danger of becoming a “nanny state”?

According to a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll released today, most Americans remain ambivalent about the issue, agreeing that policies that aim to protect public health and safety are sometimes necessary, but believing as well that adults should take responsibility for their own actions, and consequences for health.

Eighty-one percent of respondents agreed and 33 percent strongly agreed that laws aimed at protecting public safety — for example, regulations around safe driving or childhood vaccinations — are important to keeping Americans safe.

More than three-quarters also agreed that such initiatives do actually work. But on the other hand, almost two-thirds (61 percent) worried that these same laws might be too coercive, impeding individual freedoms.

“The public is somewhat schizophrenic about laws and policies that are intended to improve health and safety and reduce injuries and accidents,” said Humphrey Taylor, chairman of The Harris Poll. “Most people favor many regulations that protect them but they worry about our becoming a ‘nanny state.’”

The poll released today quizzed respondents on 14 different policies, laws and programs intended to improve health and safety. Some of the findings include:
- 91 percent supported a ban on texting while driving, while 74 percent “strongly” supported this initiative.
- 70 percent support, 43 percent strongly support banning talking on cellphones while driving.
- 78 percent support, 34 percent strongly support requiring eating establishments to reveal nutritional information on menus.
- 86 percent support, 55 percent strongly support requiring the regular round of childhood
vaccinations (mumps, measles, whooping cough, tuberculosis and polio).
- 80 percent support, 58 percent strongly support banning smoking in restaurants and public
places.
- 76 percent opposed, 43 percent strongly opposed employers citing obesity as a reason not to hire.
- 65 percent opposed, 34 percent strongly opposed employers not hiring smokers.
- 62 percent against, 37 percent strongly against the taxing of sugar-sweetened soft drinks.

And even as they supported many individual initiatives aimed at protecting the public good, 81 percent of respondents agreed that individuals should take responsibility for their own actions and “be free to make their own decisions, even if they suffer as a result.” One expert stressed that a balance must be struck between maintaining both public health and individual freedoms.The poll included 2,211 U.S adults over age 18 surveyed online between Feb. 27-29, 2012, by Harris Interactive, one of the world’s leading custom market research firms. HealthDay is a leading producer and syndicator of health news.

The complete findings of the newest joint Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll are available here. HealthDay’s news report is available here. Full data on the poll and its methodology are available at Harris Interactive.

###

About HealthDay

HealthDay is a leading producer and syndicator of evidence-based health news for consumers and physicians and is one of the largest health news syndicators to Internet sites. Its daily consumer health news service http://consumer.healthday.com/ appears on more than 5,000 websites such as Yahoo!, MSN Health, USNews.com, Everyday Health, and government websites like Healthfinder.gov, and MedlinePlus. A daily video version of the top health news story of the day is featured on HealthDay TV, a 90-second daily news broadcast appearing on several major media and U.S. government websites.

HealthDay also produces Physician’s Briefing (www.physiciansbriefing.com), a daily news service for physicians and other medical professionals. This service is licensed to hospitals, managed care organizations, media companies, and point of care providers like Epocrates.

HealthDay’s custom content division produces specialized content for a variety of audiences and works with some of the larger health portals in the United States.

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is one of the world’s leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including health care, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in more than 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us – and our clients – stay ahead of what’s next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

Ajello admits the tax would be “particularly damaging” to stores close to the state border, yet some still say beverage companies are overreacting

admin — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:52:08 +0000

Rhode Island Representative Edith Ajello thinks it’s her job to discourage Rhode Islanders from drinking “beverages with so much sugar in them.”

Manufacturers will most likely have to raise the cost of not only taxed beverages, but RI’s diet drinks too, hitting shoppers Ajello would consider ‘healthy’ as well.

Quoted in Kim Kalunian’s Cranston Herald article, President and CEO of the Rhode Island Food Dealers Association Steve Arthurs says this is “not fair to the consumer,” but manufacturers and bottlers simply cannot absorb the additional costs imposed by the tax.

Rep. Ajello, reporter Kalunian wrote, admitted that the tax would “be particularly damaging to stores close to the Massachusetts and Connecticut border.”

If the tax is incorporated into the state budget, Rhode Islanders could be paying up to 50 percent more for their soda as early as the beginning of July.

Our Lawmakers Want to Restrict our Diets by Imposing Taxes When Rhode Islanders’ Wallets are Already Hurting

admin — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:14:51 +0000

Steve Arthurs reminds Rhode Islanders that the Beverage Tax would affect juice drinks, teas, sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks, and even vegetable juice drinks and some flavored waters.

Rhode Island has some of the highest taxes in the country and an 11 percent unemployment rate. This needs to be resolved first and a new tax on grocery items is not part of a solution to solve these problems or to improve our health.

Lawmakers are claiming a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would be imposed with the good intention of bettering our diets.

“And tomorrow? A tax on candy bars? Potato chips? Ice cream perhaps? We can all assume this discriminatory tax on beverages is just the start,” Steve Arthurs said in a Chariho Times column.

Click here to read: RI beverage tax: a taxpayers contribution to general fund

“This is what intrusive government run amok looks like”

admin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:26:55 +0000

“Too nanny-state and autocratic” is what Jim Baron is calling the Beverage Tax proposed by Sen. Rhoda Perry and Rep. Edith Ajello in his column that ran in the Pawtucket Times May 30.

Yes, similar legislation has been introduced and fizzled in previous years, but Baron says the difference this time is not that there is a moral, renewed dedication to fighting obesity, rather a desperate attempt, “scraping all over the place for every dime [legislators] can put in the general fund.”

Barron gave Rhode Islanders Against the Beverage Tax the credit for rallying the “pushback” against certain legislators’ attempts to force a tax on us with the purpose of getting foods they don’t like out of our grocery carts!

“I think, with all due respect to Rep. Ajello, that we can do without their help making better choices about what we eat and drink. We have doctors to help us with that, and kids have parents.”

To read the rest of Baron’s column reviewing the Beverage Tax click here.

Rhode Island Rallies in Opposing Beverage Tax

admin — Wed, 25 May 2011 19:48:52 +0000

The Pawtucket Times on May 24, 2011 reported that beverage industry employees and local Rhode Islanders alike joined forces in rallying against House bill 5432, which would impose a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. If passed, the price of sodas, juices, teas, sports drinks, and energy drinks could increase by one cent per ounce. President & CEO of the Rhode Island Food Dealers Association, Steve Arthurs, stated “State law-makers want us to believe this tax would help fight obesity, when all it will really do is direct more revenue and increase the already heavy tax burden on Rhode Islanders.” Those who oppose the tax can voice their opinions by signing a petition through the Rhode Islanders Against The Beverage Tax coalition, which will be directed to the appropriate legislator.

Read the full article here:
5-24 Pawtucket Times (2)