ÂÜÀòÉÙÅ®

© 2025
NPR News, Colorado Stories
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Soda Sales Tax Bill Clears First Committee

Creative Commons

A Republican measure to eliminate state sales taxes on soft drinks has cleared the house finance committee on a party line vote.

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kunc/local-kunc-954306.mp3Lawmakers got rid of the sales tax exemption for sodas last legislative session to help fill a budget shortfall. The move led to a big fracture between Republicans and Democrats. And as ÂÜÀòÉÙÅ®'s State Capitol reporter Bente Birkeland reports, those divisions were just as stark this time around.

Bente Birkeland is an award-winning journalist who joined Colorado Public Radio in August 2018 after a decade of reporting on the Colorado state capitol for the Rocky Mountain Community Radio collaborative and ÂÜÀòÉÙÅ®. In 2017, Bente was named Colorado Journalist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and she was awarded with a National Investigative Reporting Award by SPJ a year later.