Oregon Beer Tax Of 1,900 Percent Proposed, Sparks Outrage

Beer brewers are warning that a proposal by five Oregon state lawmakers to tax each barrel of beer by a whopping 1,900 percent would essentially put them out of business. Oregon is facing a budget deficit and the lawmakers claim that the money will also go to treating alcoholism and prevention.

Brewers worry that the end of low taxes could cripple them:

"We're a family-owned, local Portland business. We don't want to see something cost taxpayers more than the revenue it would bring in," De Kalb said. "If that tax is passed it would mean consumers would pay $315 million more (in 2009) to buy the same amount of beer they bought in 2008. A pint of beer would go from $4.50 to $6."

Comments

[SurrealPumpkin]

Interesting that the bill specifies a dollar amount rather then a percentage. Does anyone know how much a barrel of beer at the distributor sells for?

[SurrealPumpkin]

Sheeesh! Will someone please clue in the Oregon legislature that a recession/­depression is not the time to raise taxes. All they'll end up with is closed factories, a huge bump in unemployment and not even the current revenue from beer sales.

[Paul Powell]

"Sin" taxes are stupid. They unfairly target completely legitimate companies to make up for shortfalls that are in no way the fault of said companies. Are those taxes going to be repealed once the deficit has passed? Me thinks not. If more revenues are needed, then raise the sales tax so that everyone shares in the burden, not just a small portion of the business community.

[swensonj]

I know I'm fighting a losing battle for numeracy, but here goes.

By following the first link, one learns that the proposed beer tax is $49.61 per barrel.

Unless the barrel of beer sells for $2.61 pretax, that isn't a 1900% tax.

Probably, what's meant is that the current tax is $2.48 per barrel. Then the new rate is twenty times the old rate, which means that the law would increase the tax by 1900%.

Basic rule: at least proofread your headline.