Philadelphia's newly imposed beverage tax is not a simple levy on sweetened drinks, but instead a “power grab” by the city that could negatively impact Pennsylvania's tax structure, an attorney representing a group challenging the tax told an intermediate appellate court.

But lawyers defending the measure said the challengers have “mangled” the tax in their effort to derail it.

At the crux of their arguments before the court was the point at which beverages would be taxed—with distributors saying it's a sales tax and attorneys for the city government insisting it is not levied at the retail cash register because it is paid directly by distributors.