Raising the price of sugar-sweetened sodas, coffees, teas and energy, sports and fruit drinks by an average of 31% reduced consumer purchases of those drinks by a third, according to a new analysis of restrictions implemented in five US cities.
“What we measured is how consumers change their consumption in response to price changes,” said study author Scott Kaplan, an assistant professor of economics at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
“For every 1% increase in price, we found a 1% decrease in purchases of these products,” Kaplan said. “The decrease in consumer purchases occurred almost immediately after the taxes were put in place and stayed that way over the next three years of the study.”
Where I live they tried this tax, but eventually repealed it. I think part of the problem is that it wasn’t applied in a way that makes sense. It was referred to as a “sugar tax” on sugar sweetened drinks, yet it taxed artificially sweetened/sugar free drinks under the same umbrella.
They’re going to tax as many things as they possibly can. They are motivated to increase tax revenue.