Almost a decade after the District’s last great soda tax debate, the D.C. Council will once again consider implementing a hike on the cost of sugary drinks.

Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh is proposing an increase of one percentage point in the tax on soft drink sales to pay for several nutrition programs that were unfunded in Mayor Muriel Bowser’s budget. Her office estimates that it would raise $3.2 million a year.

“It’s entirely appropriate and consistent with what we’ve done in the past to tax sugary drinks in order to pay for improved nutrition for children and residents,” Cheh told DCist. 

She says the funds would finance increased access to school breakfasts, changes to school nutrition requirements, and meals at programming offered by the Department of Parks and Recreation, among other programs.

Cheh first proposed a one-cent tax on soda and other sugary beverages in 2010. It failed by a single vote. Rather than an excise tax (which is applied to a specific good), lawmakers instead voted to apply the regular six percent sales tax to sodas, which had previously been exempted.

At some point an additional one percent was added to the D.C. Code but it has apparently not been collected by the Office of Tax Revenue, according to the Committee on Transportation and the Environment’s report. If Cheh’s proposal passes muster with the full D.C. Council, the sales tax on sugary beverages would be 8 percent. It would apply to retail sales (think grocery stores rather than restaurants) of sweetened beverages. Items that have more than 50 percent milk or 100 percent fruit juice are exempt.

But a fight is almost certainly looming.

At a committee hearing today, Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie said the hearing was not the right venue to consider such a tax increase. He was joined by Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans and Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd in moving to adjourn the meeting, before eventually reconvening and passing the report.

“I … have been a champion for improving the health and wellness of District residents. However, raising taxes on some of the District’s most vulnerable residents is a policy decision that should be made in a more transparent manner and with input from those most impacted,” McDuffie said in an emailed statement to DCist. He added that an increase in taxes should be considered by the finance committee.

The debate will now go to the full D.C. Council. Cheh said she expects lobbyists for the soda industry to come out strong against the bill, and already spotted some at the hearing today.

“These big soda people, I did battle with them in 2010. They’re extra well-funded,” she says. “We can’t let their interests prevail over the health and well-being of children. That’s what this is … It’s a stark confrontation: big soda and their lobbyists and their money and their greed versus the health of children.”