UPDATEÂ 5:30 p.m.:

The Philadelphia City Council voted 13 - 4 in favor of a 1.5-cent-per-ounce soda tax, a feat that has eluded 40 other U.S. cities, according to Reuters.

Philadelphia is now the largest U.S. city with a soda tax, and only the second to implement one, after Berkeley, Calif. in 2014.

The American Beverage Association, which represents Pepsi Co. and Coca-Cola, says it plans to take legal action to stop the Philly tax, but Mayor Kenney says the city will defend the tax in any litigation from the beverage industry.

While the passage of the tax marks a victory for public health advocates, Philly Mayor Jim Kenney focused his efforts more on the financial benefit of the tax, expected to earn $91 million in revenue in the next year to fund universal pre-K and other infrastructure initiatives.

"If you want to tax something and people know where the money's going to go, then it's easier for them to get behind it," Kenney said in an interview.

The passage of the tax in Philly is expected to boost similar efforts in San Francisco, Oakland, and Boulder, Colo., where residents will vote on soda tax measures in November.

Original Story:

Philadelphians are one step closer to having $91 million a year to expand pre-K in public schools and overhaul the city's parks systems.

They're also one step closer to paying more for soda.

A Philadelphia City Council committee last week voted in favor of a 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on sodas. That's a cent-and-a-half cheaper than the original tax 3-cent-per-ounce proposed by Mayor Kenney, but the Council voted to apply the new tax to a wider variety of drinks, including artificially sweetened and diet sodas.

The only other city in the U.S. to make it this far in taxing sugary drinks is Berkeley, Calif., which passed a measure in 2014. But as NPR points out, Berkeley is home to only about 112,000 people, while Philadelphia's population is more than 1.5 million - and the median incomes of the two cities are vastly different.

Even though the soda industry spent around $3 million to defeat the proposal, the "historic" measure is expected to pass with a final vote on Thursday.

Read More:

• Taxing Sugar: 5 Things To Know About Philly's Proposed Soda Tax (NPR)
• Philly Soda Tax Finds Friend In Bloomberg (Earth Eats)
• Philly Soda Tax: Third Time's A Charm? (Earth Eats)