I don’t personally drink much beer. Therefore it really wouldn’t affect me. This is a sham on many levels though. First and most important is the fact that this tax or fee or what ever they want to call is unfair to Oregon Brewers. It adds to the cost of their product but exempts any out of state brewer. Oregon premium microbrews are already at a price disadvantage with the major brewers. This charge would certainly tip the scales and in this economy consumers would opt for the less expensive out of state beers. I the long run this may even facilitate brewery expansion in neighboring states that don’t have the tax.

Secondly, during this bleak economic era is not the time to add more programs for the state to be concerned with. Currently Oregon spends about 115 million on drug and alcohol treatment programs with general fund money. This tax will generate 4 to five times that much. The net result if it passes will be an establishment of another expensive state bureaucracy.

The prudent alternative should be to increase the tax on all beer sold in the state at the rate of a nickel per half pint. The money should be used for all mental health, drug and alcohol treatment in the form of building and running a new state of the art mental hospital and poor farm. Then mandate all chronic abusers and homeless to this institution. Throw away the keys.

 

"Yes, the new tax would be the nation’s highest. But it’s surely just a starting point for negotiations since lobbyists have crushed similar efforts in years past."

Seems more of an assumption than a sure thing. If they were sincerely hoping to work with the beer lobby, a 1900% increase in a production tax seems a poor way of going about it.

I work in the Oregon brewing industry and I'm concerned for my employment and that of hundreds of my brothers and sisters if this bill passes as it's presently written. The idea that this rate will be sustainable is pretty naive. Year by year breweries will struggle, margins will shrink, and jobs will disappear.

Don't blame the breweries for wanting to survive. The real rogue is Ben Cannon's bill.

 

Yes, it's always a good idea to tax a prosperous industry into oblivion and cause them to leave the state and move to territories with friendlier business tax policies, thus thrusting more people onto the unemployment roles and generating far less tax revenue in the long run, making the increased keg tax ultimately pointless. This is a ruse and a sham and a blatant money grab. We already have plenty of money going toward diversion programs. The argument used here is the same argument that's been used for increases in cigarette taxes -- the kids won't want to smoke because the prices will be too high. Point of fact, teen smoking has not ebbed in light of those increased taxes; in fact teen smoking has increased. Increasing taxes on cigarettes has done nothing except put more money in the pockets of the government to piss away on God knows what, which was the end game all along. Hence, we can only assume that it's the same end game here. There has not been one diversion tax increase that has ever solved or ebbed the problem they were designed to. Ever. The only thing this tax increase would result in would be a loss of revenue, loss of jobs and the loss of yet one more industry from The People's Republic of Oregon.

 

"I personally don't drink much beer so it wouldn't affect me".

Well, yes and no. The thing about all sin taxes is that the money taken from the "sinner" is money that cannot be spent at the grocery store, the dry cleaners or the neighborhood restaurant. I also question the logic of using the money for drug and alcohol treatment. Is that funding a program that currently exists, or is it creating a new program? When the state is facing such a budget crisis, it makes no sense to raise taxes to fund new programs. How about a reasonable increase on the beer tax dedicated to the general fund instead?

 

"The prudent alternative should be to increase the tax on all beer sold in the state at the rate of a nickel per half pint. The money should be used for all mental health, drug and alcohol treatment in the form of building and running a new state of the art mental hospital.." Good idea; however, the next part about throwing away the keys is rediculous - treating mental health and homelessness with incarceration is absurd. Perhaps you're trying to be

funny or sarcastic? I'm a beer consumer and I'd pay a nickle or a dime more to pad the general fund - consider the tax only on bottled beer - that would ensnare everyone including Anhauser-Busch, Full Sail, Coors, Miller etc. Leave the fresh microbrews free of fee to encourage more folks starting breweries and using local ingredients.