A total of 20 members of the California Automatic Vendors Council (CAVC) met with state lawmakers in Sacramento, Calif. during its lobby day. The main focus of the day was to educate the lawmakers on the impact that certain pending bills would have on the vending and coffee service industry.
The CAVC members asked that lawmakers reject a bill that would require that by 2016 100 percent of all items in vending machines on state owned and leased property meet strict nutritional guidelines. They also discussed the impact that a tax on sugar sweetened beverages would have on the industry.
Finally, they asked the legislators to vote "no" on a bill that would allow local cities, counties and school districts to levy taxes at the local level. Included in the list of taxes that local authorities could impose would be a 1 cent per ounce tax on sugar sweetened beverages. With many of the vendors doing business in numerous cities and counties, the impact of this type of tax would be dramatic.
The group meetings focused on the legislators that were chairs and co-chairs of the committees that will be hearing this legislation in the weeks ahead. The legislators were receptive to the groups concerns and expressed their willingness to consider the impact these bills would have on the industry.
In addition to the meetings, CAVC assembled and delivered to every lawmaker a bag of snacks and included information about the National Automatic Merchandising Association "Fit Pick" program with a list of the items that were in the bag that meet these nutritional guidelines.
The members of the association that participated felt that they had made an impact and will work to recruit even more members to attend next year.
