Soda tax — consumers will pay
When you put a 12-pack of Coca-Cola in your grocery cart, grab a cold Dasani from a vending machine or a Powerade from the convenience store, you probably don’t think about how those refreshing beverages got there.
They come right out of Santa Fe. The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Santa Fe was started in 1919 by my grandfather, and it’s been in the family ever since. We bring in the beverages, we load them on trucks, and we deliver them every day to restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores all over north-central New Mexico.
It takes great employees to do all that — warehouse workers, drivers, salesmen, managers and clerical staffers. The beverages you enjoy when you go out to eat with your family, or the ones you buy shopping for your groceries — those sales help pay the wages of thousands of Santa Feans who depend on the beverage industry for a good part of their income.
All of that is at risk if the City Council passes a proposal to expand pre-K with a tax that would double the price of some of your favorite beverages.
There is a lot of misinformation about what this tax would and would not do. Some have claimed wrongly that to be against this tax is to be against pre-K.
Let me be absolutely clear. Myself, the Hart family and our employees are firm believers in the importance of early childhood development. After all, our families are part of the fabric of this community.
Let me also be clear about how much this tax is. The 2-cent-perounce tax doubles the cost of most beverages. You may currently enjoy Coca-Cola on sale at four 12-packs for $12; the tax would increase that to $23.50! This would be the largest tax increase on groceries in New Mexico history.
The mayor has said that Santa Fe Coke and every other small business in the city will just absorb this tax. I can tell you that this is absolutely not possible, and the mayor knows this because he has heard from Santa Fe’s restaurants, stores and beverage-makers that his $7.5 million-ayear tax will have to be passed on to consumers.
If you want to know what this tax would do, look at the realworld example of Philadelphia. Turn on the news there and you’ll see daily coverage of the anger the tax has caused. Retailers are reporting sales declines of 40 percent to 50 percent because the tax has caused prices to skyrocket on teas, soda, sports drinks, juice drinks, energy drinks and flavored waters. And Philadelphia’s tax is less than what Mayor Javier Gonzales wants to impose in Santa Fe.
Philadelphians on limited incomes are having to cut back on the beverages they’ve enjoyed their entire lives. Those who can are driving outside city limits to do their grocery shopping where the tax is not applied.
Do we want this to happen in Santa Fe? Do we want to punish hardworking Santa Feans who don’t have the time or resources to shop outside of town?
The cost of living here is already high for working families. Many people who work in restaurants, grocery stores and convenience stores would be hurt by this tax.
We absolutely should have high-quality pre-K for our children, but it should be funded with a sustainable revenue source that doesn’t hurt the residents it is trying to help. Please mayor and council, let’s slow this process down and find a way to fund pre-K right. Let’s unite around a solution we can all agree on for our kids and our community.