Philadelphia likely to become first major U.S. city with soda tax

Soda cans.
(Image credit: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images)

Philadelphia's City Council is expected to approve a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sugary and diet drinks Thursday, becoming the first major U.S. city to do so.

Two previous efforts to enact a soda tax in the city failed, but this time, Mayor Jim Kenney told the council the estimated $90 million in new tax revenues would pay for pre-K, community schools, and recreation centers, The Associated Press reports. The beverage industry has spent millions of dollars on a campaign to block the tax, and is expected to sue if it is approved. The only other city in the U.S. to have such a tax is Berkeley, California.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.