Sacramento Bee-

Weeks before negotiating a lucrative deal to ban new local taxes on soda and other sugary drinks in California for more than a decade, top representatives for the beverage industry met with Gov. Jerry Brown for a private dinner at the governor’s mansion.

Since it emerged over the weekend, public health advocates behind a growing movement to tax sugary drinks have decried the deal, which bans cities and counties from creating taxes on “groceries” through 2030, as a cynical ploy to protect the profits of soda companies. Some have pointed to the June 6 meeting with Brown as evidence of the beverage industry’s undue influence at the Capitol, where it has blocked bills to tax or put warning labels on sugary drinks for years.

Read More