In New York the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA) and the American Beverage Association are to lobby against a planned ‘obesity tax' on sugary drinks plus extension of the state's five-cents-per-container tax to include non-carbonated beverages. These are the proposals of New York Governor David Paterson.

The budget proposal would  imposes an additional 18 per cent ‘obesity' tax on non-diet fizzy drinks and fruit drinks containing less than 70 per cent natural fruit juice. The revenue, estimated at $404 million, would help to fund public health programmes, including obesity prevention, across New York State.

"In recent decades," said David Paterson, "anti-smoking campaigns have raised awareness; smoking bans have been enacted and enforced; and, perhaps most importantly, we have raised the price of cigarettes. Just as the cigarette tax has helped reduce the number of smokers and smoking-related deaths, a tax on highly caloric, non-nutritional beverages can help reduce the prevalence of obesity."

Happily, the governor also acknowledged that additional measures are necessary to address the obesity crisis, including encouraging children to exercise more, increasing the availability of healthy food in underserved communities and removing junk food from schools. Sound familiar?

A spokesman for NAMA commented: "We in the vending industry are just as concerned as everyone else about rising obesity rates and ensuring that people live healthy lives, which is why we launched our national health and wellness initiative Balanced for Life. We believe, however, that a better approach would be educating consumers about the elements of a balanced diet and the importance of physical activity. We will work with other interested organizations to make sure our industry's voice is heard."

There seems to be little precedent for the new tax proposal. In Maine, the state legislature approved new wholesale taxes on carbonated drinks, and the syrups used to make them, as part of a measure to raise money for the state health programme. However, this has now been overturned through a legislative appeal process. In San Francisco, the mayor has also proposed charging an additional tax to big retailers that sell sugary drinks.

NAMA senior vice-president Tom McMahon said: "With a sales tax on drinks of 8 per cent, tacking on another 18 per cent is a very substantial proposal".

Speaking more bluntly, the American Beverage Association has claimed that the proposed sales tax on regular soft drinks is simply a façade for raising taxes. "Singling out one particular product for taxation won't even make a dent in a problem as complex as obesity," an ABA spokesman said. "This point is supported by science as well as common sense".

Peter O'Connell, legislative counsel for The New York State Automatic Vending Association, comments: The major objection that the vending industry has with the bottle bill is that it is difficult to pass the cost of the deposit along to consumers. Unlike a supermarket or a convenience store, where sales taxes and deposits are added on at the time of purchase, vending machine operators are forced to include these expenses in the purchase price.

"A bottle of water sitting next to a bottle of soda in a vending machine is worth more to a vending operator because there is no deposit built into the vend price. The loss of this income will cost most operators tens of thousands of dollars in bottom-line revenues, rendering many accounts unprofitable because prices are often negotiated in advance under long-term contracts to provide vending services to large sites."