Thursday, May 21, 2009

Beer Tax to Pay for Healthcare

Unfortunately they have a good argument here; based on the fact that beer is probably the most abused of all alcoholic beverages based on volume. However as result, this will hurt craft brewing.

Two points I noticed in the article...

1. The wine industry seems to think they are the only ones who have responsible drinkers and a healthy product when used in moderation: "Singling out wine for higher taxes to reform health care is misguided because wine is part of a healthy diet and lifestyle for millions of Americans," said Robert P. Koch, president of the Wine Institute, which represents California's industry.

2. It looks like the proposal would be based on alcohol content (last section). This will hurt the big beers of the craft brewers.

Time to write your representatives again.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There aren't any details there, but raising the tax would result in a lot more than just an increase of that amount to the consumer. Most distributors and retailers work off of percentage mark-ups that do not account for fixed vs variable costs.

If it costs a wholesaler $0.48 more, it gets passed on as $0.55-0.65 to a retailer, who passes it on as $0.70-0.90 to the consumer, who will also pay sales tax on that tax.

ShareYourVoice said...

Raising taxes on beverage alcohol only serves to penalize responsible beverage alcohol consumers and does not deter abusers for whom taxes are of little concern. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the government’s lead agency on alcohol issues, reported in its January 2001 issue of Alcohol Alert that research suggests the heaviest-drinking 5 percent of drinkers do not reduce their consumption significantly in response to price increases, unlike drinkers who consume alcohol at more moderate levels.

Please visit www.axetaxesnotjobs.com to let your representatives know that proposed tax increases are bad for Nebraska.