D.C. Council Should Not Soak Taxpayers with New Beverage Excise Tax
Published in Insidesources.com, January 31st, 2020
The District of Columbia City Council may soon impose a new excise tax on “sugary” beverages. At 1.5 percent per ounce, it would be the third-highest in the country, after Seattle, Washington and Boulder, Colorado, which levy a 1.75 and 2 cent-per-ounce tax respectively.
Introduced on October 9, 2019 by Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, the Healthy Beverage Choices Act would raise an estimated $21 million annually and apply to any beverage with “natural common sweeteners,” including sports drinks, sweetened iced coffees and teas, juices, coconut water, and kombucha. The price of a two-liter bottle of soda in D.C. would increase by 46 percent, from $2.19 to $3.20.
The excise tax proposal was introduced one week after the sales tax on sugary drinks increased by 33 percent, from 6 percent to 8 percent, which would raise an estimated $3.2 million annually. In other words, the excise tax would raise 650 percent more than the sales tax.
It is not as if the nation’s capital needs new revenue for any purpose. In 2019, D.C. boasted a historic budget surplus of $872 million. Any funds needed for the purported purposes of either the sales tax or the excise tax are readily available without either tax.
