Last week the Northern California beach town of Santa Cruz enacted a tax on sodas, ice teas and other beverages with added sugar. Voters approved the 2-cent-per-ounce tax in November, despite the beverage industry pouring at least $1.2 million in opposition.

Besides generating an estimated $1.3 million for the city, the tax aims to curb the overconsumption of sugary drinks, which research has shown to work. Drinking too many sugary drinks can lead to heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, said Blythe Young, a lobbyist for the American Heart Association, a key proponent of the tax.

• Young: “The average American consumes a bathtub full of sugar from sugary drinks annually, or 30 gallons.”

But the tax also exists in defiance of state law — sort of.

Let’s back up: In 2018 California lawmakers brokered a deal with the beverage industry to preemptively ban local governments from implementing local grocery taxes until 2030.

That law included a provision requiring the state to withhold local sales tax revenue from any city imposing its own new grocery tax, even if a court determined that the tax “is a valid exercise of a city’s authority.”

Charter cities — which under California’s constitution are granted more flexibility from some state laws — took that part personally. Especially Santa Cruz, at the time poised to put a soda tax proposal before voters, which it then had to scrap.

But, in 2023 a state appeals court ruled that the withholding revenue part of the law was unconstitutional, giving Santa Cruz’s city council the green light to move forward with a soda tax. So, the law against cities enacting their own grocery tax is still in effect, but the law has no teeth (perhaps appropriate for a law effectively protecting sugar consumption).

In a statement to CalMatters, the American Beverage Association said it is assessing next steps, decrying Santa Cruz’s tax as illegal and an “unfair burden on working families struggling with record-high prices.”

A legal dispute would serve as yet another instance of a city attempting to carve out more autonomy. Cities have recently fought to enact their own housing policies, election rules and book bans. But instead of coming to blows with the state (or the federal government at times), Santa Cruz would be facing a multibillion-dollar industry.

• Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson, Vice Mayor of Santa Cruz: “We’re ready for that. … It does not have to be the case where people with money or special interests can dictate how a city, county or state makes decisions. It should not be.”

As President Donald Trump directs the Department of Justice and FBI to reopen the aging Alcatraz as a prison, a review of 30 active state prisons found that California’s corrections system is woefully unprepared for natural disasters, writes CalMatters’ Cayla Mihalovich.

Published last week, the report by an independent oversight agency said that issues with transportation, overcrowding and an emphasis on reshuffling prisoners within prison walls during a disaster instead of an outside location, are some of the shortcomings of the prisons’ emergency preparedness.

• The report: “The department is unable to evacuate the incarcerated population and staff at most prisons within the first critical 72 hours of an emergency. Without the ability to quickly evacuate prisons, it is likely that wildfires, floods, and earthquakes will result in loss of life within the incarcerated population.”

In 2023 storms threatened to flood two San Joaquin Valley prisons. The prisons ultimately remained safe, but the event underscored the department’s need to develop better evacuation plans.

Some human rights advocates say the findings are still troubling, confirming what they’ve argued for years about the department’s inability to face climate hazards.

Read more here.

From CalMatters visual editor Miguel Gutierrez Jr.:

Our team works hard to capture the best images we can for stories across the state. This week we’re featuring four photographs that underscore some of what we do best. 

In the photo above, the colors and shapes of crab pots added texture to a story about Bodega Bay’s changing economy. Below, note the perspective and angles used in one photo of children at a Dia del Niño celebration, versus a portrait of a couple grappling with lingering damage from the Los Angeles fires in January. Finally, photographer Fred Greaves was able to capture the raw emotion of a grieving mother testifying in front of the Legislature.

Trump ordered his attorney general to move against state climate programs that clash with his energy agenda. CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on how this could affect California’s landmark cap and trade program as part of our partnership with PBS SoCal. Watch it here.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.

California Voices

CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: The Legislature is considering bills that would fine oil companies for climate disasters, but if they’re signed into laws, corporations can pass those costs to customers.

Cutting social safety net services during economic uncertainty only worsens inequality, and state lawmakers must protect California’s most vulnerable as they hammer out a budget plan, writes Chris Hoene, executive director of the California Budget & Policy Center.