Folks on the left coast might get a 1500% tax increase on beer

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EdWort

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Higher state tax on beer?

ASSEMBLYMAN BEALL PROPOSES BIG INCREASE
By Mike Zapler
Mercury News Sacramento Bureau
Article Launched: 04/11/2008 01:34:17 AM PDT



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 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.
 
Under age drinking issues? Punish the people who sell to minors. Make the punishment brutal.

I can see the gov't start taxing HB supplies, grain , extract, hops, yeast...

Its enough to make my blood boil.

I agree with the Republican comments about stopping the outrageous overspending.

Rep or Dem - I'm for less taxes. The gov't is too wasteful of my hard earned dollars.
 
homebrewer_99 said:
Won't happen. What will happen is everything will be priced out of range to where NO ONE will be able to afford anything...:mad:

I was thinking on the premise that the ingredients are used to make alcoholic beverages.

Grains might be the exception since they have multiple uses. Is malt grain used in other products besides beer?

In any case I hope you are right!!
 
Famous last words.

Don't worry, we're from the government. We're here to help you.

The politicians answer to everything is to tax it so they can spend the money buying votes to stay in power so they can tax more things for more money to buy votes to stay in power.....You get the drift.

It's all BS.
 
I concur...all politics are BS. RDWHAHB.

I also say the same for organized religion. Both those topics are not allowed at my house.
 
Not every crackpot scheme that some low-level politician proposes comes to pass. This one will NEVER happen, it's not worth even worrying about.

Still, he ought to receive that cock punch. Just on general principle.

Email the twit, tell him what you think of his idea.
 
Yah - Talking religion will set off people much more so than a disagreement about politics.

Simply Put - The problem is with discussing religion is that its founded on faith and all the debating in the world will resolve nothing.
 
My family and friends in CA rarely need to be reminded why I left. Once they visit NC they start thinking about emigrating themselves. Problem is so does everyone else who spends any time on the Carolina coast.


Too many people in CA think they know better than anyone else, and there's way too many types who actually believe in "We're from the government, and we're here to help" lie. No offense to the Cali brewers on the board.
 
BLL said it all correct. They try to pull this kind of crap all the time in this state. Cigarettes, Beer, Candy, Soda... all to fund some crackpot health education program that won't really do anything. It won't pass, but some idiot will bring up something similar again.
 
Schlenkerla said:
Damn Evan - That's the 2nd time I agreed with you tonight!!

Any idea how the Saison is doing?

The saison is doing very well. The Forbidden Fruit cake (hehe, fruitcake) fermented it dwon from 1.017 to 1.010! So it's definitely where I wanted it to be---83% attenuation---and I racked it to secondary. Thanks for asking!
 
EdWort said:
Famous last words.



The politicians answer to everything is to tax it so they can spend the money buying votes to stay in power so they can tax more things for more money to buy votes to stay in power.....You get the drift.

It's all BS.


"In general the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other." [Voltaire]


The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. [H.L. Mencken]


The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-by to the Bill of Rights. [H.L. Mencken]


"The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods."[H. L. Mencken]

This is what we have,
If we could only have this...

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is "needed" before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents "interests, " I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can." [Barry Goldwater]
 
There was a bill in Oregon to boost beer taxes almost as much, last year. It got nailed.
 
"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.

What cost to society?

make the tobacco companies pay more, the consumer pays more to kill themselves. no big whoop. i'm a smoker, but i'm considerate to non-smokers. i'm not responsible for any lungs but my own. SOOOO much money is going to healthcare, too :rolleyes:

what the HELL does me drinking brew in my own home have to do with the "cost of society" and why is it my responsibility for some dumb **** out there who ABUSES instead of uses?

thanks for posting this. now i want to stab that prick in the face...
 
niquejim said:
If we could only have this...

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is "needed" before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents "interests, " I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can." [Barry Goldwater]

Cheers, friend. :mug: Another couple of quotes from a great American.

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 (Not pertainent to the conversation, but one I feel strongly about today.)

All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.
Benjamin Franklin - relevent and the plague of our times.
 
Homercidal said:
My pastor said he met a fellow who was against organized religion, and he told him, don't worry, they are not that organized!

That's a line from the movie Sneakers:

"Organized Crime?"
"Don't kid your self. They're not that organized."
 

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