LANSING — The Cola Wars are bubbling up in Michigan.

But it’s not a battle between the antebellum Coca-Cola and the upstart Yankees of PepsiCo.

No. In the fight over a proposed 4 percent sales tax on carbonated soft drinks, it’s lab coats and latex gloves versus aprons and cash registers.

 While the Michigan Dental Association has no official stance on the tax, its director of marketing, Tom Kochhesiser said the organization would favor legislation that addresses oral health problems caused by excess consumption of pop.

“Anything that would lead to better oral health and nutrition habits would be welcome,” he said.

On the opposite side of the dentist’s chair, Bonnie Bochniak, government relations director for the Michigan Food and Beverage Association, said the tax could hurt the pocketbooks of her association’s members.

“This is not only going to affect them and their ability to sell — maybe people won’t buy as much — it’s affecting the consumer,” she said. “Are merchants going to be charging more now if people aren’t buying as much to recoup some revenue that they’ve lost?”

The tax, proposed by Rep. Matt Gillard, D-Alpena, would be the same rate levied on alcohol and tobacco sales in the state.

But Bochniak said Michigan business owners and consumers who find ways around those taxes — like traveling to other states to buy their liquor — would do the same to avoid the soft drink tax.

“People are now buying cigarettes and other products and getting them shipped here or driving there and driving back,” she said. “Or moving their businesses because it’s so much easier.”

Paul Farr, president of the Michigan State Medical Society, said people are already spending too much money on soft drinks.

“If you drink four cans a day at $1 a can, that’s $1,400 a year,” said the Grand Rapids physician, who favors the tax. “$1,400 a year on pop? It’s the same thing if you smoke a pack a day.”

Kochhesiser said a 2-cent soda pop tax has been spearheaded in Wisconsin by that state’s dental association. Legislators there rejected the so-called “Two Cents for Tooth Sense” proposal in 2005 but the measure was reintroduced in March. The revenue would go to Medicaid oral care programs and dental schools in Wisconsin.

Michigan Democrats say the pop tax would generate $70 million in revenue. That money would go to local governments, as well as into the state funds for school aid and catastrophic health care.

Rather than use a soft drink tax as a new source of government revenue, Bochniak said, the food and beverage industry group wants legislators to trim spending.

“We don’t feel like it’s been fully explored yet,” she said of possible budget cuts. 

In the end, the dentists’ Kochhesiser said, the debate over the tax should be settled by priorities.

“It comes back to deciding what is most important to society and people these days, and I think oral health and overall health should be at the top of the list,” he said.

Gillard’s bill is in the House Health Policy Committee.