It was 1992 and Ohio Senate President Stanley Aronoff was on the golf course when his cell phone rang.
The Republican lawmaker stepped away from his companions, Coca-Cola executives, to take the call. When the exchange was over, Aronoff and then-Democratic House Speaker Vernal Riffe had agreed to wedge an unpopular carbonated beverage tax into that year’s state budget. At a penny per 12 ounces, the decision would cost distributors of Coke and other sodas $67 million — that’s $148 million in today’s dollars.
