Senator Diane Allen, (R-7), endorsed plans to create a new office of Nutrition and Fitness to help reduce rising obesity rates adding that the state can do more by repealing the sales tax on gym memberships.

            “I applaud the administration’s initiative to coordinate and integrate the Health Department’s obesity prevention programs,” Allen said. “The state needs to go a step further and approve the legislation I sponsored that would roll back the sales tax on health club memberships.  It’s illogical to upgrade the educational and prevention programs promoting healthy lifestyles on one hand and on the other hand to impose a seven percent exercise tax.”

            According to federal figures, about 37 percent of New Jersey adults are overweight and about 22 percent are obese. A nutritious and well balanced diet is important to reducing obesity, but health care professionals also advise that regular exercise is an important component of a healthy lifestyle. 

            “This new office is a positive step for New Jersey in combating obesity and the negative health consequences related to being overweight,” Allen said. “It also makes good financial sense as we try to contain spiraling health care cost. But it makes no sense for New Jersey to be the only state in the region that taxes gym memberships.  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2000, the estimated annual cost of obesity in the United States was $117 billion."   

            “We need to do all we can to encourage people to live healthier lives and that includes repealing the shortsighted 7 percent sales tax on gym memberships. Let’s not give people even one more reason not to go to the gym."