January 2018 Newsletter Extra

A new tool created by Healthy Food America and Legal Science makes comparing sugary drink tax ordinances easy for members of the legal, public health, governmental, and advocate communities.

Announcing Healthy Food America’s new feature, “Compare Tax Policies.”

The first tax on sugary drinks in the United States high enough to impact consumption became effective in Berkeley, California in 2015. Since then, each place that instituted or pursued this policy modified its ordinance language to fit local needs, local laws, and the growing body of knowledge about the policy in practice.  This led to variation and improvements in ordinance language, but took work and time to investigate the differences.

Now, Healthy Food America’s website lets you compare tax policies.  An interactive database allows for easy, detailed examination of ordinance precedent and variation by posing policy questions and linking answers to relevant legal text.  It currently includes the municipal ordinances implemented or pursued in the US since 2014.

Visit HealthyFoodAmerica.org/compare_tax_policies for a quick start guide and begin exploring.  If you have questions or feedback, please contact Sara Soka at [email protected].

For more guidance about sugary drink tax policy design, please see “Best Practices in Designing Local Taxes on Sugary Drinks” by ChangeLab Solutions and Healthy Food America (released March 2016).

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