Usually more taxes don't help the average American, but a group of leading nutritionists and economists out of Yale University, say taxing sugar-sweetened beverages could lead to smaller waistlines, expanded government coffers and even savings on health care costs.
In a report published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, the group led by Yale's Kelly D. Brownell, tries to make the case for a 1 percent per ounce excise tax on caloric sodas, fruit drinks and other beverages containing high-fructose corn syrup.
"The science base linking the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to the risk of chronic disease is clear," they write.
The tax would increase the cost of a 20-ounce soft drink by 15 to 20 percent, according to a report in the Baltimore Sun, which might be enough for people to reduce consumption significantly and possibly lose a significant amount of weight.
A national tax recommended by the nutritionists and economists could also raise $14.9 billion nationally in the first year, economists said in the report. It would raise $172 million for Connecticut, according to the tax calculator on the Yale University Rudd Center for Food and Policy and Obesity site. That's based on people in Connecticut downing 136 million gallons of sugary drinks.
Some have argued that a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would be regressive. The beverage industry has objected when individual jurisdictions have proposed such taxes.
But proponents say people will get used to the idea.
