Tax on soda

Buzzfeed has an article by Claudia Koerner about a new tax in California:

Voters in Berkeley, California approved the first soda tax in the US on Tuesday, following more than two million dollars in expenditures there against the ballot measure.
A similar tax failed in San Francisco, where approval was required by two-thirds of voters, though fifty-five percent of voters were in favor of the tax on sugar-sweetened beverages, including sodas, energy drinks, and pre-sweetened teas.
San Francisco would have added two cents per each ounce of soda. In Berkeley, voters approved a tax of one cent per ounce. Diet soda, milk, and nutritional drinks are exempt. Distributors of the beverages, not consumers, will have to pay, though small businesses are excluded.
According to a Department of Health and Human Services estimate from 2010, sodas and other sugary drinks account for more than a third of added sugar in Americans diets. Supporters of the measures hoped to curb obesity rates, particularly in children, as well as health problems from diabetes to tooth decay.
Similar penny-per-ounce taxes have been attempted in the past, but all have failed. The soda industry spent more than two million dollars fighting the Berkeley measure and, in San Francisco, nine million dollars went toward the opposition campaign.

Rico says that of course it would pass in Berkeley... (But you'd think eleven million dollars would've paid a lot of taxes.)