Preschoolers win big in primary election

From pre-K classrooms to libraries to playgrounds across the city, you can see and touch the impact of Philadelphia’s coveted Soda Tax. On Tuesday, voters, as they have time and time again, declared our kids are worth it.

Despite political opponents and beverage industry billionaires playing fast and loose with the facts behind Philly’s sweetened beverage tax, the realities of the funding mechanism supporting quality pre-K expansion, and other critical investments on the city’s kid-centric infrastructure, were apparent to voters in this week’s primary.

Comparing the share of votes in his first mayoral primary to his second, Mayor Kenney actually saw a sizable increase in support, from 56% to 67% on Tuesday; his pro-soda opponents, Tony Williams and Alan Butkovitz, got fewer votes than those that opposed Kenney (including Williams himself) the first time around.

So much for those claims of a soda industry-loving, angry electorate. Philadelphians have been clear from the start that they supported the sweetened beverage tax.

During the run-up to the primary, the anti-tax rhetoric was alarming for voters already beleaguered by fake news, slamming doors in the faces of canvassers cynically playing politics with pre-K. Earlier this month, one Philly mom put pen-to-paper for a Mother’s Day essay for the American Heart Association. 

“Thanks to PHL Pre-K classrooms,” wrote Mariah John Skibber, “I’m one of thousands of Philly moms who doesn’t have to worry if their child is getting what he needs to thrive. This Mother’s Day, I’m celebrating the gift of a healthier, stronger community, thanks to the soda tax.  I’m not alone.”

She certainly wasn’t alone, not in her hopes for pre-K, nor in her frustration with “the highly profitable soda industry, who has pushed the cost of their tax onto the backs of Philly families like mine.”

While the bloated beverage industry scrambles to intimidate communities considering their own tax and incentivize elected officials to oppose those efforts, new economic analysis made headlines this week that showed a national soda tax rate between 1 and 2.1 cents an ounce would have the greatest public benefit, not only to fund badly needed programs like pre-K, but to improve health outcomes especially for low-income residents, which would lead to significant savings in healthcare costs.

Philadelphia’s beverage tax is 1.5 cents an ounce, cementing its place as a national leader and an especially savvy one at that.

Support for soda taxes appear to be on the rise across the country, despite the untold millions the beverage industry spends on its misinformation campaigns and lobbying efforts to insert state preemption laws that would preclude local governments from enacting their own soda taxes, as they are in Harrisburg.

As we saw on Tuesday, there are plenty of votes for those who back a smart soda tax, while opposing one gains you nothing but empty calories. We hope our state legislators recognize what families need and demand—the right choice for the new generation.