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Higher state tax on beer?

ASSEMBLYMAN BEALL PROPOSES BIG INCREASE
By Mike Zapler
Mercury News Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - Joe Six-pack will have to pay a lot more to get his buzz on if Assemblyman Jim Beall has his way.

The San Jose Democrat on Thursday proposed raising the beer tax by $1.80 per six-pack, or 30 cents per can or bottle. The current tax is 2 cents per can. That's an increase of about 1,500 percent.

Beall said the tax would generate $2 billion a year to fund health care services, crime prevention and programs to prevent underage drinking and addiction.

"The people who use alcohol should pay for part of the cost to society, just like we've accepted that concept with tobacco," Beall said.

He added that the beer tax hasn't been touched since 1991, and the increase then was meager.

But the freshman lawmaker will have to lift the legislative equivalent of a full keg of beer over his head to get his tax enacted. That's because it would require a two-thirds vote in the Assembly and Senate - and then, because it's a constitutional amendment, it would have to be approved by voters. Republicans say it's a non-starter.

"I predict the shelf life will be very short," said Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Sacramento, vice chairman of the budget committee. "It's a piecemeal approach to the budget that completely avoids any discussion of spending discipline, which is fundamentally why we have the problem that we have."

Mike Fox Sr., chairman of San Jose-based beer distributor M.E. Fox & Co., said Beall's heart is in the right
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place. "He's very dedicated in areas of health," Fox said. "But a tax of that nature is far too grievous. The beer industry produces so much for the economy. He won't get to first base with that."

Dan Gordon, co-founder of Gordon Biersch Brewing Co., calculated that the tax on a barrel of beer would go from $6.40 to $89. "We would all be looking for jobs," he said.

Beall said he's targeting beer because his research showed that California undertaxes brew relative to other states, which he said isn't the case with wine and spirits. But it's also true that taking on the beer lobby will be hard enough for Beall, without letting it team up with the wine and spirits industries.

Beall, a former Santa Clara County supervisor, has focused heavily on underage drinking during his time in Sacramento. He is pushing legislation that would require the sweet alcoholic malt beverages known as "alco-pops" to include warning labels clearly stating that they contain alcohol.

And last year, Beall lobbied successfully to persuade the state Franchise Tax Board to tax "alco-pops" at the rate assessed to hard liquor products instead of beer - a move that was expected to raise the price of a six pack by about $2. The increase is scheduled to go into effect later this year.

That effort, however, did not require a two-thirds vote in the Legislature.

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fmb

What a freaking crackpot. Haven't any of pols figured out you can't tax something individually to pay for other "programs"?? Didn't this idiot do the research and see the cig taxes dropped use? With lower use comes lower taxes.

Then again, being a pol, he figured he'd use the media attention to get his name more widely known....

Asshole.

joerockhead

People like Beall NEVER, EVER mention the fact that the cost will affect many other area's, and that the "Proposed" tax revenue of unbelievable number's will NEVER be met.
He wants to get his name out and be a Politician. He is probably one of those people who has had everything handed to him. Never work an honest day in his life.

The problem is, he will keep this up, and work to get support of other groups, and get more media attention.

Plus, his BS as to what the $$ would be used for, more likely BS projects and not real help. Like the majority of our tax money ends up...in the pockets of Sheisters!!!!

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rjsincs

ive said for years they should cuz taxes on essentials like food, clothes, gas and other stuff needed to live and raise taxes on alcohol and tobacco. i also think they should legalize prostitution, gambling, and marijuana and also tax the crap out of it.

no one should have to chose between food and electricty or heat or any life sustaining things like it is now. i know a lot of people who dont eat some times to save money for rent. it sux raising tax on beer and cigs but if they do that they should lower taxes on the essentials.

no matter what anyone jokes or thinks alcohol, tobacco, weed, or prostitutes are not life essentials. and they could be done without if someone is responsible or in need of money. and if you cant go without them and cant afford food or important bills then you need help.

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BackdoorJesus

Well I disagree that we should just up the existing sin taxes to the sky because that really won't solve our money problems for long - people stop using as much & the revenue source eventually dwindles. Look at cigarette smoking for that.

I do agree however that legalization of certain things like weed & prostitution, and in turn taxing them, is a two-fold solution to a problem. First it widens the tax base, increasing the actual revenue that is taxable by legitimizing something that the gov't to-date has not been able to get a piece of. Secondly the money spent on law enforcement and incarceration (which is HUGE) would also be saved. There is real money to be added there both to the standard economy as well as to the gov't coffers.

IMO, you don't really change taxes by changing the pieces you cut of the pie, i.e. the revenue pie is the same size, all this is doing is cutting a bigger piece here so as to cut a smaller piece there. Ultimately, by adding to the tax base in you make it easier to spread the benefit around, and by saving good money thrown after bad you increase those savings even moar.

In the end, what really needs to happen is that the government needs to be more responsible about how the money it gets is spent...and neither of the parties have gotten it right BTW.

Truth be told, I'm just glad I drink Jameson - no new beer tax for me regardless, but I'm sure someone somewhere down the line will find a way to get moar of my money to pay their bills.

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joerockhead

To a point the taxation of Weed and Prostitution is OK, but then you run into the other factors of Regulation.

1st, by taxing these, you will be taking employment from people that have it as their sole income. Some of the people make a lot of $$ and some do not. The idiots get wheen'd out quickly.
If Government had it under their control, it would cost us more, the product would be less available and not as good, Insurance and other labor costs would exist, as well as extreme lawsuits.

Everything (EVERYTHING) the government controls, goes to shit!

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93crawler

How about the military--the government controls that? Oh no you didn't, yep I did. You don't trust anything the government does, and rightfully so, but you seem to praise the military every chance you get. Don't get me wrong, I think that the service men and women are very brave, and courageous, but are being led by an incompetent government.

adrenaline

Wow.. 1.80 for just a sixer.. thats rediculous... However that being said.. Taxing things more that are not necessities is OK in my book. They were talking here about taxing sales on video games to help fund for some program.

joerockhead

HAHAAA!!! Yeah, I did say the WHOLE thing, huh.

Well, you are right, if it was not for the Men and women serving (From O-4 down) it would be totally Fucked Up!!

The Military is being led by an incompetent Government, and has been for about 200 years!!!! None of them know how to do it right!!
And it doesn't matter if you Ran away to England to avoid the draft, or ran to the ANG and hid, we have had POOR leadership of the military for a long long time.

And CONGRESS is taking away benefits (Co-Pay on medical is now the standard), and cutting other things too.

(And yet Congress Gets Fatter!)

Ok, rampage OFF!

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YaMon

Necessity is a "value". Some people "value" some things that others don't. Last time I checked, this was still America and each and every one of us, no matter how fucked up (909) they may be, has the right to value beer over another's value of... say... milk and eggs.

Fucking democrats would tax ejaculations if they could









Imagine the tax generation this board would generate!

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adrenaline

fair enough..

BackdoorJesus

actually you're onto something there...the idea is to increase the tax base, not apportion the current tax base differently, so there ya go!

and eriolsy JRH, you cant convince me that regulation of legitimized weed & prostitution along with the tax revenue it would create would come even CLOSE to the costs spent on law enforcement & incarceration of offenders. There is just no way man....


but again, in the end the real answer is for the gov't to stop spending our money like it's going out of style! They need to cut it back because none of us can afford half the shit they're making us pay for.

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Juan.©amaney

Just do like I do and get your buzz on south of the border.

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elfoozo

Putting tax on prostitution and such will directly affect a lot of politicians so there's no way you'll ever see that fly.