"Chicago Will Now Tax Sugary Drinks"

"The Windy City joins Philadelphia, Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland, and Boulder to slap a levy on sodas."

"Even as President-elect Donald Trump looks to a soda lobbyist to craft food and farm policy for his coming administration, another major city has stuck a thumb in Big Soda's eye by imposing a penny-per-ounce soda tax.

Cook County, Ill.— which encompasses Chicago—approved the tax Thursday. With a population of 5.2 million, Cook emerges as by far the nation's biggest locale to tax sugary drinks. As in Philadelphia, which instituted a tax in June,  the Cook soda tax resulted from a vote of the county's governing council. In the other US cities that have followed suit—San Francisco, Oakland, Boulder on Tuesday and Berkeley in 2014—such decisions are decided by voters mulling ballot initiatives.

In all of those instances, the American Beverage Association led a heavily funded campaign against the move. In Chicago as in the Bay Area, former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg countered by funding a pro-tax push."

Tom Philpott reports for Mother Jones November 11, 2016.

SEE ALSO:

"Trump's Head Food Guy Delivers for Little Ceasars on the Side" (Mother Jones)

"Soda Taxes Sweep to Victories, Despite Facing Big Spending" (New York Times)