Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
February 25, 2013 at 08:57 AM
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont panel has withdrawn support for a proposed tax on sugary soft drinks that it approved two days earlier.
Members of the Vermont House Health Care Committee voted 5-5 Friday for H. 234, a bill that would impose a 1-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks and use the money to pay for programs related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
Rep. George Till, D-Jericho, the sponsor of the bill, is an obstetrician.
Till and other H. 234 supporters want to use some of the $27 million in projected drink tax revenue to fill what they see as gaps in federal PPACA health insurance subsidy expansion funding.
Till also has argued that the tax could “substantially reduce the average 44 gallons a year of sugar-sweetened beverages” that the typical Vermont resident drinks each year.
