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Coca-Cola Hires Lobbyists to Keep Soda in Schools
By Gregory B. Hladky
Journal Register
News Service
May 7, 2005
HARTFORD -- Getting Coke and Pepsi out of Connecticut’s schools is
proving a sticky proposition, partly because those beverage behemoths
have hired some very high-powered lobbyists to shake things up at
the state Capitol.
Legislation that would effectively ban soda and junk food vending
machines in Connecticut’s public schools has already passed the state
Senate. But it ran into a lobbying maelstrom in the House this week.
With millions of dollars in sales at stake, the big-time soda makers
were pulling out all the stops in their efforts to stop the bill.
But they were also joined by a number of other special interests,
ranging from the Teamsters, to high school coaches, to some school
boards, all of which fear they will lose jobs or revenue if soda is
banned.
"It was pretty intense," said state Rep. Michael J. Cardin, D-Tolland,
one of the bill’s primary sponsors in the House. "I felt like a fireman
trying to put out all these fires at the same time."
After hours of head counting and negotiations Thursday, state House
Democratic leaders decided to hold off on their attempt to get the
bill passed.
One reason for their caution is that the bill is a favorite of the
state Senate’s top Democrat, Donald E. Williams Jr. of Brooklyn. If
the bill dies in the House, that could jeopardize legislation dear
to the hearts of House Democrats that is now awaiting action in the
Senate.
Cardin, who is House chairman of the legislature’s select Committee
on Children, said he and other supporters of the measure hope to get
a vote on it soon. "I do think we can get the votes," he said.
But Republicans like state House Minority Leader Robert M. Ward, R-North
Branford, aren’t so sure.
Ward calls the bill both "unnecessary ..and irrational." He believes
that local school boards are fully capable of deciding how best to
deal with the issue of soda in schools, and says the legislation as
written doesn’t seem to make sense.
According to Ward, the bill would allow soda sales at "school sponsored"
events at the high school level, as long as they weren’t being sold
from vending machines. But soda sales from food booths would apparently
be banned at events such as midget football games held at school fields.
"It just seems silly to me," said Ward.
Advocates like Cardin insist that the goal of the bill is to halt
the sales of soda to schoolchildren as part of the nationwide effort
to combat obesity and improve the nutrition of America’s youth. Instead
of soda, students could buy milk, water or fruit juice to quench their
thirst.
Cardin said "the No. 1 myth" about the bill is that it would financially
hurt local school districts that now receive a share of the profits
from vending machine soda sales.
"Studies have shown that when schools pull sodas out of the vending
machines, there’s no drop in revenues," Cardin said. "Our biggest
fight is with the soda companies."
To wage that battle, the soda companies have recruited some of Connecticut’s
top lobbyists.
The Connecticut Pepsi Bottlers Association Inc. had on its team Jay
F. Malcynsky of Gaffney, Bennett & Associates, the biggest lobbying
firm in Connecticut. According to Ethics Commission records, Pepsi
is paying Gaffney, Bennett $50,000 a year in fees.
At bat for the Coca-Cola Bottling Companies of New York and New England
was Patrick Sullivan, of Sullivan & LeShane, which was No. 3 on the
list of Connecticut’s top lobbying firms last year.
The price tag for Sullivan’s services is $80,000 annually for Coca-Cola’s
New York arm, plus an additional $7,350 a month being paid by its
New England subsidiary.
According to figures supplied by Coca Cola, its sales in Connecticut
schools provide those school districts with more than $7.5 million
in annual revenue of various forms.
Some of the money is allocated to pay for athletic programs, booster
clubs, scholarships, scoreboards, programs for talented students and
other school-related projects.
One of the key goals of the industry lobbying effort is to exempt
vending soda-machine sales after school hours.
Federal regulations already prohibit soda vending machines from operating
in schools from 30 minutes before school lunches periods begin until
30 minutes after the periods end.
The legislation would also set new requirements that, for kindergarten
through grade five, schoolchildren would get at least 20 minutes of
physical exercise per school day.
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