Read the op-ed on Santa Cruz's Measure Z that ChangeLab Solutions co-authored with the American Heart Association on the Lookout Santa Cruz website.
ChangeLab Solutions partnered with the American Heart Association to write an op-ed informing voters in Santa Cruz, California, about the beverage industry’s deceptive advertising campaign against Measure Z, a proposed soda tax that would improve health and raise funds for community projects and services in Santa Cruz.
The beverage industry is aggressively trying to convince Santa Cruz voters that Measure Z will lead to an 'illegal' tax on beverage distributors. In California, many cities like Santa Cruz have a constitutional right to govern their own affairs, including enactment of taxes like this one.
―John Maa, California Advocacy Committee, American Heart Association, & Sabrina Adler, ChangeLab Solutions
For more than a decade, the beverage industry — namely, Coke, Pepsi, Dr Pepper, Red Bull, and their lobbyists — has been spending millions of dollars to oppose new local-level sugary drink taxes in California.
These efforts peaked with passage of the deceptively named 2018 Keep Groceries Affordable Act — a statewide ban on new city-level sugary drink taxes in California that was passed using shady political tactics.
In 2023, a California appeals court affirmed that part of the 2018 law violates the California constitution. Measure Z represents the first opportunity for voters to decide on a local sugary drink tax in California since the appeals court's decision.
Conclusive evidence demonstrates the positive health effects of sugary drink taxes, and voters should have the right to vote on local taxes without industry interference.
Read the full op-ed on Measure Z.
10/30/2024
