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States
- Even Oregon - Look at Higher Beer
Taxes States
- Even Oregon - Look at Higher Beer
Taxes Many states
are looking at raising "sin taxes" in order to
cover falling state tax receipts because of
recession. The Distilled Spirits Council of the
United States reports that eight states want to
boost taxes on beer, wine or hard liquor. In 2001,
Washington and North Carolina lawmakers boosted a
surcharge on alcohol sales and a liquor tax,
respectively. In Oregon, Gov. John Kitzhaber has
proposed a "nickel-a-drink" tax on beer and wine.
Jim Parker, executive director of the Oregon
Brewers Guild, points out that brewing beer isn't a
sin and questions the math on the "nickel a drink"
computation. The governor's proposal works out to
an increase of 53.7 cents a gallon, or more than
six times the current rate of 8 cents a gallon. The
proposed tax of 61.7 cents a gallon would be more
than triple the national average and the
second-highest tax rate in the country. 'Nickel
a Drink' Legislation Would Fund Trauma and
Emergency System State Senator
Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) reintroduced
legislation to help save California’s
beleaguered trauma centers and emergency rooms. The
CMA-sponsored bill is expected to generate $500
million annually by assessing a 5¢-a-drink
fee. The fee would be levied at the wholesale level
and targets liquor vendors rather than consumers.
The bill guarantees that all of the money will be
used to defray the rising costs of operating
emergency rooms, trauma centers, and first-response
teams. "In light of
our $21 billion budget deficit, California
taxpayers cannot continue to bear the financial
burden for an industry’s product that is
responsible for substantial health care costs to
the public and the state," Senator Romero said
during a press conference at White Memorial Medical
Center in Los Angeles. "The alcohol industry must
assume greater responsibility for a product that,
by its design, debilitates an individual’s
physical and mental capacities." The
legislation comes on the heels of Governor
Davis’s announcement that he has rescinded a
one-time appropriation of $25 million to assist
struggling trauma centers in California and has
rolled back Medi-Cal reimbursement to 1985 levels.
The governor’s $2 billion in proposed cuts
from health care programs and services are going to
have a devastating impact on California’s
already struggling emergency rooms and trauma
centers, Senator
Romero said, adding that counties will be
hard-pressed to find the funding necessary to help
keep California’s health care delivery system
afloat. Contact:
Karen Nikos, 213/630-1139 or E-Mail Senate
Health Committee Passes CMA-Sponsored
"Nickel-a-Drink" Bill In
Sacramento, the CMA-sponsored "Nickel-A-Drink" bill
passed its first committee hearing this week. The
Senate Health Committee voted strongly in favor of
this legislation that would place a
five-cent-per-drink fee on alcoholic beverages, to
generate more than $700 million for trauma centers,
emergency departments and on-call
physicians. For
additional information on this and other bills of
interest to California physicians, see CMA’s
Legislative Hot List online at www.calphys.org
Contact:
Dustin Corcoran, 916/444-5532 or E-Mail Please
contact your Representative and Senators, and send
the message that you support an alcohol tax
increase and would like to see this option included
in the current budget debate. Follow these
links to look up your legislators’ email or
webform addresses: In the
Senate, click
here
Dear
Representative/Senator: As
Congress continues to weigh tax and
spending priorities, I hope you will
consider a logical and popular source of
new revenue that deserves your serious
review. A
recent survey commissioned by the Center
for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
examined the public's views on alcohol tax
increases and federal funding priorities.
It found strong bi-partisan support --
among drinkers and non-drinkers alike --
for increasing federal excise taxes on
alcoholic beverages. Among the key
findings: •
Seventy-one percent of Americans support a
five cent per drink increase in federal
alcohol taxes; •
Seventy-nine percent of Americans support
an alcohol tax increase instead of a cut
in federal programs; •
Fewer than half of Republicans think that
five cents was too large an increase, and
by more than a two to one margin,
Republicans preferred alcohol-tax hikes to
cuts in programs such as Medicaid and drug
benefits for the elderly. A
tax increase of five cents per drink would
yield more than $20 billion in new revenue
over the next five years. Raising taxes on
alcoholic beverages enjoys such widespread
support because most Americans would
barely notice an increase: more than
one-third of adults don’t drink and
among those who do, more than eight in ten
drink at most one per day. The alcohol
tax, for the most part, would be felt by
the 20 percent of drinkers who consume 85
percent of all the alcohol -- those whose
heavy and addicted drinking imposes the
greatest public health and safety costs to
society. An
alcohol excise tax increase is also
overdue and fair. Even with the last
increase in 1991 (under the “Revenue
Reconciliation Act of 1990”), in the
past fifty years the relative price of
beer has fallen by more than 25 percent
relative to the Consumer Price Index, and
the effective price of liquor has fallen
almost 50 percent. Please
visit CSPI's website for further detail on
their national alcohol tax poll, at:
www.cspinet.org/new/200512071.html
You
can find further background on alcohol tax
issues at: www.cspinet.org/booze/FedBeerTaxTP.htm
I
would appreciate knowing your views on
this budget option, which I believe would
make for sound fiscal and public health
policy. Thank you for your
consideration. With
best regards, Name
& Address |
