New front in soda tax battle — the City Hall vending machine
Building’s Coca-Cola dispenser loaded with diet drinks after council vote
A few weeks ago, Santa Fe City Manager Brian Snyder felt the urge for a Cherry Coke.
Snyder walked a short distance from his office to one of the vending machines at City Hall to get his hands on a 20-ounce plastic bottle of cherry -flavored Coca-Cola.
Much to his disappointment, Snyder said, the vending machine was full but didn’t have any Cherry Coke, like it usually does.
“It was Cherry Coke Zero and Diet Coke and other options that I understood to be low-sugar,” he said Wednesday.
The absence of regular sodas from the Coca-Cola vending machine at City Hall appears to be the latest salvo in the fight over a contentious proposal by Mayor Javier Gonzales to impose a 2-cents-per-ounce excise tax on sodas and other sugary beverages to fund early childhood education programs in Santa Fe.
Diet drinks and beverages with less than 10 grams of sugar are exempt from the proposed tax.
The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Santa Fe, which owns the vending machine in question, is among the organizations and individuals opposing the proposed tax. A service manager at the bottling company referred questions to CEO Barry Kiess, who did not return several messages seeking comment Wednesday.
City employees said the switch of drinks in the vending machine happened after the governing body voted 8-1, with Councilor Ron Trujillo dissenting, to put the tax measure before voters during a special municipal election May 2.
Councilor Signe Lindell said she didn’t understand why regular sodas were removed from the vending machine.
“This machine has been here a long time, and I’m not sure why that would need to happen,” she said. “We don’t know that people wouldn’t be willing to pay a little bit of extra money to have a Coca-Cola as opposed to a Diet Coke. I think it’s a little pre-emptive.”
The mayor, through a spokesman, declined to comment.
Sandra Wechsler, campaign manager for Pre-K for Santa Fe, a group working in support of the tax, said the mayor’s proposal is “already working.”
“Just like in Berkeley, Coke isn’t going to lose any revenue, and they are offering healthier choices to people,” she said.
Berkeley, Calif., is among a handful of cities that have imposed a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.
David Huynh, a spokesman for a coalition opposing the proposed tax — Better Way for Santa Fe & Pre-K — said he “didn’t know anything” about the switch of sodas in the vending machine.
But Huynh said what he does know is that there’s a “better way” to fund the mayor’s initiative.
On Tuesday, during the first day of budget hearings, city finance officials said they are projecting a surplus of $15.5 million in the upcoming fiscal year, prompting Huynh and his group to reiterate their position that there’s another way to fund prekindergarten programs.
“Santa Fe’s lawmakers should allocate part of the projected $15 million surplus to fund Pre-K instead of imposing a brand new beverage tax that would hurt local small businesses and hit working families the hardest,” he said in a statement.
“The surplus was generated by Santa Fe’s growing economy, so why would the government risk slowing down that growth with a tax that will result in loss of revenue to local stores and restaurants and job cuts?” he asked. “The money is there. Let’s fund Pre-K now. We have a better way.”
City spokesman Matt Ross said there appears to be a “basic misunderstanding” about the way funds at the city are restricted “and what we mean when we say we’re looking at a budget that has a $15 million surplus.”
“It simply means that [the proposed budget] spends $15 million less than we anticipate coming in, in revenue, next fiscal year,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean that there’s $15 million in cash sitting around, and it also doesn’t mean that cash is available for any purpose we would love to spend it on,” Ross added. “A lot of that money is very specifically restricted to legally allowable uses, prohibiting its use on a range of different things, including funding pre-K.”
Beyond that, Ross said, the mayor is looking for a stable revenue source to fund his initiative.
“The mayor has made it clear that his proposal is about creating a dedicated source of recurring revenue to fund something that he sees as a priority,” he said.