Dr. Jim Krieger is the executive director of Healthy Food America and a supporter of soda taxes. He agrees that a tax on sugary drinks in Philadelphia could create a domino effect. “Taxes on sugary drinks can be an important source of revenue for local communities and states that have not fully recovered from the Great Recession,” he says. “I think that, for other jurisdictions that have their own list of things that they want to support, this will be a good precedent.”

Brownell and Krieger also believe that big-soda bans will likely spread throughout the country in the future. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ban was struck down by that state’s highest court in 2014.