"Why target one particular industry?" Bill Greenlee of the Philadelphia City Council asked during the council meeting.
Hundreds of Teamsters filled the crowd at City Council Wednesday as they demanded the rejection of Mayor Nutter's plan to levy a 2-penny per ounce tax on sugar sweetened drinks.
Union people and retailers claim the soda tax will swallow up thousands of jobs from food stores in the city and four regional bottling plants.
"The Teamsters position, the soda tax is an impractical and shortsighted policy decision that will succeed in only cutting jobs, not in cutting obesity rates," Danny Grace of Teamsters Local 830 said.
"If the price [of a 2-liter bottle of soda] goes to $2.55 a container, consumers will stop buying it in the city of Philadelphia," Dave McCorkle of the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association said.
The mayor says the soda tax will raise $77-million a year towards closing a budget shortfall and hopefully reduce consumption, a big factor in the obesity epidemic.
"Beverages pass through the stomach quickly and the caloric intake, the amount of calories in what you drink, doesn't do the same thing has high caloric solid to make you feel food," Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Donald Schwarz said.
"If indeed the tax does change the pattern of sugar sweetened beverages, rest assured, that companies will develop new products and or market already existing ones they have that are not sugar sweetened; they always do," Dr. Gary Foster of Temple University said.
The pros and cons at this hearing came from all points of view including Pete Ciarrocchi, the co-owner of Chickie's and Pete's restaurants. "But they're not doing to the cakes; they're not doing it the candy. Does candy not have sugar in it?" Ciarrochi said.
On the other side of the debate, Girard College student Linda Powell spoke of the benefits she believes the tax would bring.
"They are other states who have already taken the initiative to start this program and obesity is not only a serious problem in Philadelphia, but all across the nation," Powell said.
The mayor's soda tax plan and trash collection fee proposals are under fire at City Council, but so far, councilmen have not come up with an alternative to generate 150 million new dollars in revenue.
The mayor says the soda tax will raise $77-million a year towards closing a budget shortfall and hopefully reduce consumption, a big factor in the obesity epidemic.
Mayor Nutter spent part of his day pitching the new taxes directly to residents at the Trolley Car Diner on Germantown Avenue in Chestnut Hill.
City councilwoman Donna Reed Miller joined him as they responded to comments and concerns.
