The Coca-Cola Capitation Conundrum: The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Leaves Philadelphians Thirsty for Soda and Certainty in Williams v. City of Philadelphia

This Note examines the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s decision in Williams v. City of Philadelphia and argues that, while the court upheld Philadelphia’s sugary beverage tax under the Sterling Act, it failed to clarify the scope of municipal taxing authority in Pennsylvania. By adopting a legal-incidence analysis, the court preserved broad local taxing power but left unresolved longstanding uncertainty in Pennsylvania’s tax preemption doctrine. The Note concludes that legislative action is necessary to define the limits of municipal taxation and provide greater predictability for future preemption challenges. [This abstract was written by Microsoft Copilot, a generative artificial intelligence.]