The Philadelphia City Council is expected to approve a new tax on sugary beverages and diet drinks Thursday despite the American Beverage Association spending $4.9 million to defeat the measure.

Adoption of the measure would make Philadelphia the first major U.S. city to impose a soda tax. It certainly hasn't been the first to try, with ABA having spent millions of dollars fighting similar efforts in other communities and states in the past.

The 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax is expected to generate $386 million for the city in the course of five years, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Most of that money would be used to pay for education, parks and libraries, although it also would be used to fund city employee benefits and support a tax credit for healthy beverages. http://bit.ly/23ecfZc

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney has made passage of the tax one of his top policy priorities. ABA has been fighting the measure since March, including $700,000 on a last minute ad blitz trying to convince voters that tax revenues were not going to be spent as the measure's supporters originally promised, according to Philadelphia Magazine.

"The people of Philadelphia deserve to know that less than half of the money from this tax in the first several years is designated to go to the pre-K programs Mayor Kenney has been talking about for months," Anthony Campisi, a spokesman for the ABA-funded Philadelphians Against the Grocery Tax, told the publication.

ABA will likely challenge the tax in court if it adopted, the magazine reported. http://bit.ly/1UQyd0C

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