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Home Front: Culture Wars
Higher State Tax on Beer?
2008-04-12
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.

Posted by:no mo uro

#5  No chance in hell of passing or even seeing a serious hearing, and that is according to the LA Times who loves crap like this and would be behind it 100%.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2008-04-12 21:33  

#4  compromise by levying a mere $.50 tax

Let's see...that'll push a 16 oz Coors Light at my favorite bars to $3.50 abd $3.00, respectively. It'll push a beer at the ballpark to something like $7.50. Good designer beers out here run about $4.00 for a 16-22 oz glass so you're looking at $5.00 a glass there at least.

Tack the extra $0.50 onto wine and hard liquor and you might as well be $10 for a beer and a shot.

It's typical graft (grift is right!) at the state level - nobody in their right mind in this state should think that any of the taxes taken in by this will go anywhere except into some state Senator or Assemblyman's special pork project and from there right into his or her pockets.
Posted by: FOTSGreg   2008-04-12 17:20  

#3  Relax -- this is a classic political shakedown -- here's the grift: 1)threaten a $1.80 tax 2) reap "campaign contributions" from the beer distributors 3) compromise by levying a mere $.50 tax ("a fraction of what we wanted!") 4) note the regressive nature of the tax to give more goodies to illegal aliens ("they pay taxes like the rest of us, only more!"), 5) Greg moves to OK, sadder by wiser and 6) rinse/repeat in two years.
Posted by: regular joe   2008-04-12 14:36  

#2  So how much is the tax on Cabernet going up?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2008-04-12 14:23  

#1  One more reason to bail outta' California for Oklahoma (less than half the cost of living despite having a median income that's about the same as where I live).

Anybody know what a beer costs in Broken Arrow or Tulsa at a decent bar (not necessarily a high end establishment, but not a dive either)? I've got a 3-bedroom, 2 bath house back there in about 3-4 months for $700/month (paying $1450/month for the same basic house in CA).

Frakkin' pols...
Posted by: FOTSGreg   2008-04-12 14:06  

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