In season five of Parks and Recreation, Leslie Knope implements a city-wide tax on soda.
The storyline appears in “Soda Tax,” the second episode of season five, which originally aired on September 27, 2012. Leslie proposes the tax in Pawnee, Indiana, as a response to the town’s obesity problem and the enormous quantities of cheap sugary drinks sold by local restaurants.
The proposal quickly becomes politically difficult. Ron Swanson views it as government overreach, while the Pawnee Restaurant Association argues that the measure will hurt businesses and cost workers their jobs. Leslie even uses oversized soda cups to demonstrate how much sugar residents can consume through inexpensive beverages.
After a tense public forum and a crisis of confidence, Leslie casts the deciding vote. The tax passes by a 3–2 margin, but the victory has consequences: Sweetums, Pawnee’s powerful sugary-snack corporation, later supports a campaign to recall her from the city council. The episode was also influenced by real-world debates over sugary-drink taxes and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed limits on large soft drinks.