WTF Friday

MADISON, Wis. — Soft drink consumers in Wisconsin may soon be in the same boat as smokers if a bipartisan group of legislators succeed in taxing soda, the Pierce County Herald reports. Funds from the soda tax would be earmarked for dental care for the state’s poor.

However, Republican Sen. Dan Kapanke says the state has the funds to pay for dental care now without adding a tax on soft drinks. Led by Sen. Mark Miller (D), the bill (SB 117) would put a 21-cent tax on every gallon of bottled soft drinks — including powders for ready-mix beverages--sold in the state in any given year. Also, the measure would put a $2 a gallon tax on soft drink syrup.

The funds raised by the tax would be placed in a dental access trust fund and used to reimburse dentists for clients using the state’s medical assistance program, the newspaper reports. With previous such funds having had the money reallocated for other programs, Miller believes the same fate could happen to the dental access trust fund. “Only the discretion of the Legislature in terms of us being committed to keeping the funds for the dentists,” Sen. Miller told the newspaper. “It is very difficult to create a fund that can't be raided.”


Sen. Kapanke said the Legislature can find the $20 million a year necessary to give dentists the proper reimbursements without resorting to a soda tax. “We asked that the governor put $40 million into his budget for this, but he didn't do it,” said Kapanke, adding that between the additional revenue projections by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau and current state funds, Wisconsin should be able to fund the dental access trust without additional taxes.