Martinez not sweet on push to study statewide soda tax
Republican governor, other critics blast Democratic senator’s effort online
Seven months after Santa Fe voters soundly defeated a proposed tax on sodas and other sugary drinks in the city, a state senator wants to study the pluses and minuses of a statewide tax on sugarsweetened beverages.
Sen. Jerry Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, has introduced a joint memorial calling on the Legislative Finance Committee to conduct a study of the potential benefits in revenue and public health and the potential negative impacts from such a tax.
Already, the proposal is generating stiff opposition from the state’s top Republican, Gov. Susana Martinez, who took to Facebook on Wednesday to grumble that “liberal Democrats are pushing a soda tax again.” “Less than a year after voters in the state’s most liberal city easily rejected a tax on soda, Senate Democrats want to raise taxes on soda statewide,” she wrote.
“No matter the budget situation, Senate Democrats have tried to raise taxes every year since I’ve been your Governor,” Martinez wrote. “I promised you that I would not raise taxes and I’ve kept my word.”
The governor’s Facebook post elicited mostly negative comments about Ortiz y Pino’s proposal.
“Ask the voters in Cook County, Illinois how well a soda tax was received,” Drew Williams wrote in a Facebook thread with more than 200 responses. “Even in a far left city like Chicago constituents hated it so much the county board was forced to repeal it a short few months after its implementation. If it didn’t work in Chicago, no chance it will work in New Mexico.”
David Thorp, director of the New Mexico Beverage Association, said in a statement that New Mexico voters have already rejected a tax on what he called “every day beverages.”
“Santa Fean [sic] consumers saw that the revenue would come at a great cost to their wallets as well as the many local stores and restaurants that provide employment for thousands of people,” he wrote, referring to Mayor Javier Gonzales’ proposed 2-cents-per-ounce tax on distributors to raise an estimated $7.7 million. The annual revenue would have been used to send more kids to preschool.
Gonzales, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, said in a statement that he’s “clearly on the record having been in favor of new revenues to fund high quality early childhood education.”
“But the voters spoke, and I listened,” Gonzales wrote. “Regardless of the benefits for public health and revenue, the idea simply did not bring together the support of the community, and it’s not something I’d support pursuing.”
On the other hand, Gonzales said, the benefits of early childhood education are clear.
“With leadership at the executive level and Legislature, we’ll be able to prioritize full funding for it as part of the normal budget process,” he said, adding that the state can start by “eliminating the millions of dollars in tax breaks given to special interests that don’t result in any benefit to average New Mexicans.”
Ortiz y Pino, who proposed an unsuccessful bill in 2010 to tax sugar-sweetened beverages one-halfpenny per ounce, did not return a message seeking comment. But he told KRQE News 13 that a tax on sugary drinks could not only make New Mexicans healthier but generate revenue for the state.
“If we could reduce the consumption of soft drinks by increasing the tax, that they don’t pay anything at all on now, I think it would balance the ledger a little bit,” he told the television station.
Ortiz y Pino’s joint memorial calls for a study of a tax on distributors of sugar-sweetened beverages, though it doesn’t specify what the tax would be. In other cities and states with such taxes, distributors often pass most if not all the cost on to consumers.
The memorial states New Mexico has the 32ndhighest adult obesity rate in the United States. It also states sugar-sweetened beverages aren’t subject to New Mexico’s gross receipts tax because they’re considered food.
“While evading taxation, sugar-sweetened beverages wreak havoc on the health of many New Mexicans, with taxpayers paying through medicaid and other public-payer sources to address increased rates of diabetes, obesity and other health challenges arising from the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages,” the memorial states.