Huckleberries Online

EOB: Booze Tax Hike Bill Fills Room

Posted by DFO

Feb. 23, 2009 9:49 a.m. • 17 comments

It’s standing-room only at the hearing this morning on legislation to raise Idaho’s beer and wine taxes - unchanged for the past four decades - to fund substance abuse treatment. “This increase is pocket change for the vast majority of responsible drinkers,” sponsor Keith Allred of The Common Interest told the House Revenue & Taxation Committee. Though the taxes would more than triple, the increase would be less than a dollar a month for a beer drinker who buys a six-pack a week, he said/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. More here.

Question: Do you care whether the Legislature hikes taxes on beer and wine to fund substance abuse programs?

17 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

moscow_minidoka on February 23 at 10:09 a.m.
Actually, I do care. I don’t want to pay more for beer and wine just because some people have a problem handling their booze. In hard times like these, I need my booze to be as affordable and plentiful as possible.

I should have shown up, crying, explaining what a hardship this would be to people like me who drink wine by the bottle, not the glass, and beer by the six-pack, not the bottle.

The state of Idaho needs to get out of the alcohol business, anyway.
pjc on February 23 at 10:10 a.m.
In the end, I bet it won’t end up funding substance abuse treatment. I’d bet that a vast majority of it will end up in the general fund.

I found an article in the Idaho-Press Tribune that indicates the bill (which has a long way to go) would dedicate $14.3 million in estimated new revenue for substance-abuse treatment, with another $5 million going to Idaho’s general fund. I’d bet that by the time it goes through the legislative process, more ends up in the general fund.

The article also states that currently, Idaho’s beer tax is the 37th highest in the nation, while its wine tax ranks 34th. If the bill passes, the beer tax would be the ninth highest and the wine tax the seventh.

I actually have no opinion on the merits of raising the beer and wine tax in Idaho; however, I just don’t believe lawmakers when they say revenue will be dedicated to substance abuse treatment (especially in these tough economic times). That money will end up in the general fund.
Bent on February 23 at 10:57 a.m.
How do you pass a new tax in southern Idaho? Tie it to a mormon taboo… They’ll be taxing coffee next.
BlueinIdaho on February 23 at 12:23 p.m.
Maybe if more of the legislators had an interest in the wine and beer biz, they would rethink this issue. I guess that’s why we don’t see anyone trying to up the tax on insurance, real estate and farm products. The only pocketbooks that come to mind during the legislative season are the ones they are sitting on themselves.
Arpie on February 23 at 2:54 p.m.
This is the kind of practical solution I wish the legislature would come up with more often. A small tax, close to the source of the problem to fund programs that pay for a possible solution. I say no brainer. That said, the beer and liquor lobby is powerful. It will be hard for legislators to go against them. Anti-tax folks knee jerk reaction to new taxes will be hard to overcome as well.

And, yes, I drink more than a beer or two now and then.
hhuseland on February 23 at 5:35 p.m.
As a matter of principle, I oppose the so-called “sin” taxes. Smokers and drinkers are outnumbered by those that abstain. These voters can piously look down their noses at those that do either of these activities. In short, it’s the majority being pandered to at the expense of perhaps those that feel the pinch the most.
hhuseland on February 23 at 5:39 p.m.
Obesity has been fingered as the most harmful of the imbibers. Perhaps we should tax potato chips to fund those quadruple by-pass. There are others of course. Raise taxes on hostess twinkies, white bread, all bakery products. These are legal and also being abused. Once we tread down this path it opens up a huge can of worms … which is probably the only food mentioned here that won’t hurt you.
Bent on February 23 at 6:11 p.m.
Yes, Herb, but mormons still eat those, so you can’t tax them.
Nick_Adams on February 23 at 10:55 p.m.
As someone who has a beer now and again (I’m enjoying a Sierra Nevada right now), I don’t have a problem with this idea. Substance abuse is a huge problem. It impacts our health care, social and judicial systems.

However, I hope that this is a supplemental, rather than a replacement funding source. I can see our representatives using the passage of the bill as an excuse to gut the existing funding. In which case, we’ll be worse off than we already are.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.