SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 6

53rd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2018

INTRODUCED BY

Gerald Ortiz y Pino

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE FINANCE COMMITTEE TO CONDUCT A STUDY OF THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS IN REVENUE AND PUBLIC HEALTH OUTCOMES AND THE POTENTIAL NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF A TAX ON SUGAR-SWEETENED BEVERAGES IN THE STATE.

     WHEREAS, according to the department of health, the overall diagnosed diabetes rate in New Mexico during 2014 to 2016 was ten and seven-tenths percent; and

     WHEREAS, according to the department of health, between 2014 and 2016, the percentage of diabetes among American Indians in New Mexico was nineteen and seven-tenths percent and, among Hispanics in New Mexico, it was thirteen and six-tenths percent; and

     WHEREAS, according to a recent study by the trust for America's health entitled "The State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America", New Mexico now has the thirty-second highest adult obesity rate in the United States; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico's adult obesity rate is currently twenty-eight and four-tenths percent, which indicates a precipitous rise in obesity rates, from the seventeen and four-tenths percent rate in 2000 and the eight and one-tenth percent rate in 1990; and

     WHEREAS, the "State of Obesity" study indicates that nearly one in four, or twenty-four and nine-tenths percent, of children aged ten to seventeen years in New Mexico are obese; and

     WHEREAS, in 2010, a team at the national institutes of health linked sugar-sweetened beverages with long-term weight gain, type two diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular risk, citing a number of other epidemiological studies; and

     WHEREAS, currently, in New Mexico, sugar-sweetened beverages are not subject to the state's gross receipts tax as they are considered to be "food"; and

     WHEREAS, while evading taxation, sugar-sweetened beverages wreak havoc on the health of many New Mexicans, with taxpayers paying through medicaid and other public-payer sources to address increased rates of diabetes, obesity and other health challenges arising from the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages; and

     WHEREAS, the world health organization in October 2016 called for jurisdictions to tax sugar-sweetened beverages in hopes that paying higher costs for these beverages would inhibit consumption and thus reduce obesity and diseases related to over-consumption of sugar; and

     WHEREAS, the world health organization recommended a twenty percent increase in the cost of sodas and related sugar-sweetened beverages as it believes that this would lead to a twenty percent reduction in consumption; and

     WHEREAS, the proceeds of a tax on sweetened beverages could be used to offset the costs of obesity, diabetes and other public health challenges that New Mexico faces; and

     WHEREAS, sugar-sweetened beverage taxes have been enacted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Boulder, Colorado; Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland and Albany, California; and Cook county in Illinois as well as in France, Hungary, Ireland, Mexico and the United Kingdom; and

     WHEREAS, a study published by the instituto nacional de salud publica, Mexico, and the university of North Carolina has shown decreases in soda purchases in Mexico pursuant to Mexico's sweetened-beverage tax; and

     WHEREAS, in 2014, voters in the city of Berkeley, California, levied a penny-per-ounce tax on soda and other sugary drinks in order to inhibit sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and address increased rates of diabetes and obesity; and

     WHEREAS, the American Journal of Public Health reported in October 2016 that after Berkeley's sweetened-beverage tax took effect in March 2015, residents of two low-income neighborhoods reported drinking twenty-one percent less of all sugar-sweetened beverages and twenty-six percent less of soda than they had the year before;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative finance committee be requested to conduct a study of the potential revenue from imposing a sugar-sweetened beverage tax on the distributors of sugar-sweetened beverages; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislative finance committee be requested to investigate the most effective way to impose a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislative finance committee be requested to determine the health benefits of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages as well as any potential negative effects of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that staff for the legislative finance committee be requested to report its findings and recommendations by October 1, 2018 to the governor, the legislative finance committee, the legislative health and human services committee and the department of health; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor, the chair and vice chair of the legislative finance committee, the director of the legislative finance committee, the chair and vice chair of the legislative health and human services committee and the secretary of health.

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