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It's one of the most controversial issues in New York right now: a penny-an-ounce tax on sugary beverages, which if implemented could reportedly raise $1billion/year for the State and reduce consumption by 15%.
So, should sugary beverages be taxed as a way to bridge New York State's $8+biillion budget deficit? Will it really curb childhood obesity? Or is it merely a regressive tax at a time when New Yorkers are strapped for cash more than ever?
Joining us to answer these questions is the man at the center of the action, our NYS Health Commissioner, Richard Daines.
See you on the 28th for this important discussion.
Free for members; $7/non-members
New York Times profile of Dr. Daines and the soda tax:
Health Official willing to go to the Mat on Obesity and Sugary Drinks
NYTimes 4/4/10
New York State’s health commissioner would be the first to admit he has soft drinks on the brain. The commissioner, Dr. Richard F. Daines, was recently driving down Interstate 15 in Utah, his home state, when he came across four billboards in a row that beamed a subliminal message at him, and not the one the advertisers intended. The first billboard said, “44 Ounce Soda, 99 Cents.” (“This is a carbonated beverage, meant to be consumed in your car,” he said, marveling at the thought of such a large serving.) The next one said, “Any Size Soda, One Dollar.” (“Who would go in and order the petite size?” he said. “It’s just a signal to consume.”) The third billboard trumpeted Utah’s first dedicated C-section wing with a slogan that might owe an apology to Garrison Keillor: “Where No C Is Average.” (“Presumably,” Dr. Daines said, “maternal obesity and diabetes are one of the reasons women are getting C-sections.”) The fourth billboard said, “We Suck Fat. Smart Liposuction.”
“It kind of captures the whole thing,” Dr. Daines said, getting excited as he told the story in an interview in his Manhattan office. “We underprice this commodity that we overconsume — and I mean we, we all do it — we suffer the consequences, and then we try to buy our way back out of it, liposuction or something, bariatric surgery, some kind of pill for obesity.”
Which brings him to Gov. David A. Paterson’s proposed penny-an-ounce tax on sugared sodas. Dr. Daines fits the part of the sin-tax crusader. Standing 6-foot-1, he is as lanky and folksy-sounding as Jimmy Stewart, a Spanish-speaking former Mormon missionary in Bolivia who practiced medicine in the South Bronx for 20 years.
Over the past few weeks, he has been traveling the state lobbying anyone who would listen about the scourge of obesity and championing the proposed excise tax as a possible cure that has the added benefit of plugging a giant hole in the state budget.
The state budget office estimates such a tax would raise $1 billion a year when fully in effect, and reduce consumption by 15 percent, an estimate based, Dr. Daines says, on industry price elasticity models. Earnings would go to stave off health services cuts, so the tax is supported by the health care workers’ union — 1199 S.E.I.U. — and the Greater New York Hospital Association.
Many have written off the soda tax as a lost cause, with neither the Senate nor the Assembly supporting it. Soda bottlers and many supermarkets and bodegas have mobilized to oppose the tax, saying it would cost jobs. Dr. Daines accuses politicians of caving to the soft-drink lobby, which makes regular campaign contributions. “It scares the politicians away,” he said.
But he is gambling that the tax proposal might be revived during 11th-hour budget negotiations, when lawmakers are desperate.
Dr. Daines, meanwhile, has gone into polemical overdrive. He dismisses as counterintuitive arguments by the soft-drink industry that the link between soda consumption and obesity has not been proved. “It’s obviously scientifically plausible that if you reduce consumption of excess calories, you reduce obesity,” he said. He ridiculed what he called the “personal choice” argument that government should stay out of people’s kitchens, saying it was being promulgated by “AstroTurf false-flag operations” that are really supported by the soda industry. “We know this elaborately with tobacco,” he said.
His passionate attacks on soda-tax opponents make one almost want to pity Nelson Eusebio, a supermarket owner in Queens who is chairman of New Yorkers Against Unfair Taxes, a coalition that is fighting the tax. Mr. Eusebio called Dr. Daines “out of touch with reality.” “When it comes to obesity, to attack a single industry as wholeheartedly as he has is creating a lot of confusion for the public,” Mr. Eusebio said. “It’s leading the public to think that if they stop drinking soda, they won’t be obese anymore. Soda may be a contributor to obesity, but it’s not the sole contributor.”
Dr. Daines hates the term “fat tax,” often used by supporters and opponents alike, because it sounds accusatory. He prefers the more anodyne “beverage tax.” But diplomacy has not necessarily been his strong suit. After Staten Island lawmakers supported an antitax rally at the Coca-Cola sales and distribution center near the Goethals Bridge, Dr. Daines fired off a scolding press release that said, “Staten Island has the state’s second-highest obesity rate, as well as the second-highest consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.” “I am concerned for the health of Staten Islanders,” he added. “Sixty-five percent of Staten Island residents are overweight or obese, and 35 percent of them drink one or more cans of sugar-sweetened beverages like soda every day.”
Dr. Daines urged Staten Islanders to support their local soft-drink workers by drinking Diet Coke (which would not be taxed), adding, “I hope they also drink nutritious low-fat milk.”
Waxing passionate the other day, he managed to make soda purveyors sound almost like drug dealers. “I raised my kids on Park Avenue,” he said. “You can walk at least from 60th Street to 96th Street on Park Avenue. You won’t see a single soda billboard, you won’t see a single fast-food outlet, and I don’t think you could buy a soda. Basically, a child raised in that corridor has a soda-free day after school.” But walk 30 blocks north to Harlem, he said, and the picture is different. “This is cheap, it’s heavily advertised, it tastes really good,” he said. “And then we plunge kids into that environment, and we say, if you have a problem, you lack self-control.”
Mr. Eusebio, the tax opponent, recommended that Dr. Daines devote his time to promoting a “holistic diet” and educating young people about the benefits of exercise. “Educating people helps them more than taxing them,” Mr. Eusebio said. “If taxation was a form of diet, New Yorkers would be the healthiest people on the planet because we are the most overtaxed people on the planet.”
About Commissioner Daines:
Richard F. Daines, M.D., FACP, was confirmed as the 14th Commissioner of Health for New York State on March 21, 2007. As Commissioner, Dr. Daines heads one of the nation’s leading public health agencies with a budget of over $50 billion. Under his leadership, the Department of Health administers the state’s public health insurance programs, regulates hospitals and other health care facilities, conducts research in a premier biomedical laboratory, and supports public health prevention initiatives. During the past year he helped shape significant health care reforms that were adopted in the state budget, including increased access to health insurance coverage for the uninsured, greater emphasis on primary and preventive care, quality improvement initiatives, and investment in health information technology. Dr. Daines led the implementation of health care facility restructuring measures mandated by the State Legislature in connection with the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century. He is currently leading an effort to reform health care through more effective local health care planning.
Prior to becoming Commissioner, Dr. Daines was the President and CEO of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center from January 1, 2002 until January 2007. Previous to joining the Hospital Center as Medical Director in 2000, Dr. Daines served as Senior Vice President for Professional Affairs and Medical Director at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx.
Dr. Daines received a Bachelor of History degree from Utah State University in 1974 and served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bolivia from 1970 to 1972. He received his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1978. He served a residency in internal medicine at New York Hospital and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine.