June 05, 2011|By Jeff Shields, Inquirer Staff Writer (reprinted)
Nearly burned in 2010 with the nation's steepest tax on their product, the beverage industry has turned its attention to City Council to make sure it doesn't happen again.
The soft-drink industry gave a total of $95,300 to Council candidates in 2010-11, a nearly 800 percent increase from 2006-07, when the industry contributed just $10,600 to Council.
The 17 Council members will now decide the fate of Mayor Nutter's effort to revive the tax, which died in Council during budget negotiations last year.Nutter says the tax would raise $80 million toward closing a gap of more than $600 million faced by the Philadelphia School District. On Friday, he stuck to the idea even after the district announced that it could save full-day kindergarten - the chief concern raised by the mayor and Council.
Well before Nutter returned to the soda tax, the industry was laying the political groundwork for another showdown.Leading the way were Harold and Lynne Honickman and their children, owners of Pepsi and Canada Dry bottling operations in New Jersey that provide nearly 20 percent of the city's soft drinks.
The Honickmans, prolific Rittenhouse Square philanthropists whose interests include the arts, gun control, and homelessness, contributed $63,300 in 2010-11 after giving just $500 to Council races in 2006-07. Their adult children, Shirley Honickman Hahn and Marjorie Honickman, and son-in-law Richard Hahn joined in the giving.
Other contributors the last two years were the state industry's new political action committee, Liberty Bell Beverage PAC, funded mostly by PepsiCo Inc. The PAC contributed $18,000 to 14 candidates.
Coca-Cola PACs and one Coke executive gave a total of $14,000 in 2010-11, showing no contributions in 2007 Council races.The Liberty Bell Beverage PAC was formed in response to the debate last year over Nutter's push for a 2-cents-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks to close a gap in the city budget."The fact is, Mayor Nutter put a target on the back of this industry and dragged them into the political process," said Larry Ceisler, spokesman for a coalition of bottling companies, local businesses, and union members who oppose the soda tax.The industry has been joined by Local 830 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, whose members drive the trucks that deliver the drinks. The union's contributions to Council went from $2,950 in the 2007 election to $9,000 this year.
