Connecticut Debates Soda Tax

The Connecticut Post reports Republican members of Connecticut's tax-writing Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee cautioned that a dedicated fund to promote better health from the state's proposed soda tax would "simply bloat the state budget." They cautioned that the tax money would be spent elsewhere, comparing it to the "billions that have come into the state from Big Tobacco settlement of 1998, the vast of majority of which has not been invested in smoking cessation." During a public hearing, retail merchants also argued that the tax, which amounts 68 cents on a 2-liter bottle, would "kill small business" by cutting sales by about $168 million a year.