Jan 8, 2019
Nearly all of Seattle’s soda tax is being passed on to consumers, new report shows
The city collected nearly $17 million in the first nine months of the tax —… Read More
The Seattle Beverage Tax
In Seattle, the cost of beverage taxes is outrageously high. This excessive tax is harming businesses, costing working families and making this increasingly expensive city less livable, especially for lower- and middle-income families.
On Jan. 1, 2018, a tax on thousands of everyday beverages took hold in Seattle. The staggering 1.75-cent per ounce tax caused beverage prices to skyrocket – making prices on some products soar 50 percent or more.
When the Seattle City Council passed this tax quietly in June 2017, they turned their back on neighborhood business owners and working-class families. This job-killing beverage tax drives up prices and worsens income inequality in Seattle.
Seattle residents who can least afford the tax are hurt the most. Businesses are also feeling the pain of residents heading across city lines to do their grocery shopping.
Despite the health claims used by the City Council to justify this new tax, the fact is that beverage taxes have never been shown to improve public health. The evidence is clear that these types of taxes only make people’s lives harder and their cities less livable.
“It is unfair that we have had no control or say for this imposed tax.”
– Abdul Malik, Gyro Hut
VIDEOS
NEWS
Sep 28, 2018
The poor and middle-class will be hardest hit
Instead of harmful taxes that don’t make anyone healthier, public health… Read More
Aug 10, 2018
Soda tax: Uneven burden
The story on beverage-tax revenues makes very clear what store… Read More
Aug 10, 2018
I-1634 aims to obstruct taxing food
The Washington Secretary of State’s Office has formally certified Initiative… Read More