“We’ve had to make a number of difficult decisions to create a balanced budget that provides essential public safety and public health services to county residents while being fiscally responsible,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said last week.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said calling for a sugary beverage tax was not an easy decision, but said the alternative would gut vital county services.

“We’ve had to make a number of difficult decisions to create a balanced budget that provides essential public safety and public health services to county residents while being fiscally responsible,” Preckwinkle said last week when presenting her proposed fiscal year 2017 budget.

She said the options for next year’s budget came down to finding new revenue, which is proposed through the sugary beverage tax, or cutting staff.

“I could put forth a proposal that would devastate our criminal justice system over the next three years and undermine the progress we are making in public health,” she said. “It would mean more than 1,000 layoffs over the next three years, including prosecutors, public defenders, sheriff’s department and critical support staff. Instead of focusing on becoming more fair and effective, we would be focusing on just on getting by.

“This budget, instead, calls not for devastation to criminal justice reform, but a significant investment in public safety.”

The county is proposing $78.5 million in expenditure reductions and cuts and the sweetened beverage tax is expected to generate $74.6 million in fiscal year 2017.

If approved, the sugary beverage tax would begin in July. The proposed tax would be a one-cent-per-fluid-ounce tax on sweetened drinks, such as soda, sports drinks and iced tea, sold in Cook County. Preckwinkle said if the sugary beverage tax is approved, she saw no reason for any other tax increases for the following two fiscal years.

The county fiscal year runs from July to June.

“This should assure our residents that we mean what we say and that we are adding a resource component to the budget only as a last resort while supporting critical programs and pursuing a sound, long-term financial strategy, something the county has not always entertained,” Preckwinkle said.

Karen Larimer, president of the Chicago American Heart Association Faculty and a professor at DePaul University, said that the sugary beverage tax is a positive for public health.

“Diabetes has reached epidemic proportion across the United States,” Larimer said, noting that diabetes and pre-diabetes in teens has gone from 9 percent to 25 percent in recent years.

She said that means one in every four teenagers has some form of diabetes.

“What we’ve seen with residents in our most vulnerable communities is that they experience catastrophic rates of illness such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and stroke,” Larimer said. “These are diseases linked to the consumption of too much sugar. Sugary beverages are the number one source of empty, dangerous calories in the American diet.”

Beverage tax leaves bad taste with businesses

A potential Cook County tax on sugary beverages has just been presented and complaints are already pouring in.

The American Beverage Association has launched a No Cook County Beverage Tax website and has already taken to the airwaves with radio ads against the potential tax. Representatives of the anti-beverage-tax campaign said that the proposed one-cent-per-ounce tax to fill a funding gap in county operations will hit residents and mean job loses in restaurants, grocery stores and the beverage industry.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle presented the tax proposal at last week’s unveiling of the county’s fiscal year 2017 budget.

She said a $174 million budget deficit meant finding new revenue or cutting 1,000 public safety and public health employees.

Even before the beverage tax was presented the Beverage Association and its members went on the offensive. In addition to the radio ads and website, the No Cook County Beverage Tax Coalition conducted a rally in early October at the County Building in opposition to any tax.

“There are 2,200 Teamsters employed in Cook County whose livelihoods are directly or indirectly dependent upon the non-alcoholic beverage industry,” said John T. Coli, president of Teamsters Joint Council 25 and chairman of the Illinois Coalition Against Beverage Taxes. “Additionally, there are thousands of small business owners and their hardworking employees who could face layoffs should the county raise another tax.”

Preckwinkle has proposed the penny-per-ounce tax on sports drinks, teas, lemonades, sodas and juice drinks.  Such a tax would increase the cost of a 99-cent 2-liter bottle of soda by 68 cents, according to the coalition. Under that scenario, it said, a 12-pack of soda would be increased by $1.44.

Members of the coalition said the “regressive nature of the proposal” could severely hurt local economic growth and job creation. They note the non-alcoholic beverage industry has a significant impact on the Illinois economy, providing more than 9,475 high-paying jobs, $819 million in wages and $1.5 billion in state and federal taxes each year, creating a direct economic impact of $6.2 billion.

“Cook County small businesses are once again starting to thrive after experiencing one of the worst economic downturns in our nation’s history,” said Tanya Triche, legal counsel for the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, and a coalition member. “The last thing we need is to implement regressive policies that will slow growth, drive business out of (Chicago) and force businesses to raise prices where it hurts the most: in Cook County families’ wallets.”

The No Cook County Beverage Tax Coalition is asking county commissioners to stand up for Cook County families and businesses by opposing the tax.

“Time and time again, we have heard from our members that an additional tax on beverages would be devastating for grocery stores, restaurants and residents who are employed by the beverage industry in Cook County,” said Claudia Rodriguez, acting executive director of the Illinois Beverage Association.

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