Scare tactics and I-1634

My radio station, broadcasting from Idaho, is being paid to spam an ad by an astroturf organization trying to pass Initiative 1634. The lie is they claim that local government wants to increase taxes on all our groceries.

What scares them is Seattle’s tax on sugar water - on soda. The sugar industry supported “research” for decades to blame fat for all the obesity problems, but in the last decade the truth has come out. The amount of sugar far too many people consume is helping with a health care crisis, shortening people’s lives and increasing the cost of care.

The problem, from the eyes of the sugar and related industries, is that it is too hard to lobby county and city governments to allow them to keep poisoning people. If they only have to buy state legislators, it’s much easier. Hence Initiative 1634.

Nobody is suggesting taxing “groceries” in general, as the ads threaten. Cities tax cigarettes to lower consumption; it makes sense to allow them to tax sodas. Vote no on I-1634.

David Teich

Spokane Valley