Seattle council pulls diet drinks out of soda tax

The Seattle City Council removed diet drinks from a proposed soda tax Wednesday, nearly one month after Mayor Ed Murray added the beverages to the bill. The council's latest version of the soda tax places a 1.75 cent per ounce tax on sugary drinks. RELATED: Seattle residents weigh in on soda taxMayor Murray proposed a soda tax to raise money to fund more equitable education in the city. In late April, he added the diet drinks to the proposal to make the tax more fair. But at a council finance committee meeting, members nixed the diet drinks before voting 6-2 to move the matter on to an official vote during a future council meeting, The Seattle Times reports.



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See if we can get it passed."Bagshaw said she might support a tax on diet drinks in the future. Will diet drinks be included in that tax? They said it could create a disparate impact for people of color who are the main consumers and sellers of non-diet drinks. That was a question that kept resurfacing at Wednesday's council meeting. The Seattle City Council revised a bill that would impose a tax on sweetened beverages at about 1.75 cents per ounce.




collected by :Lucy William