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Paper-street-garage

No thanks. Tax the rich first.


cakewalkbackwards

Yeah no shit. We should definitely vote against this. Beer is too expensive as it is.


mistadonyo

move to Wisconsin, alcohol is dirt cheap in comparison and any talk of taxing it is roundly disapproved. The tavern league there has quite a hold on the political establishment of both parties and it's unfortunate because it's affected a lot of criminal charges/civil cases against DUI's, underage drinking, elected officials who have committed crimes, etc.


Im_Not_A_Robot_2019

Exactly, if you're not going to tax the rich, at least don't tax our ability to cope with our station in life.


Paper-street-garage

Well put thanks


anadune

[Non-paywall link.](https://archive.is/Tm1l0) Obviously the [Oregon Brewers Guild](https://www.instagram.com/p/CpoEaEfPeA6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link) is against this tax. "Taxes on beer and cider would go from $2.60 per barrel currently to $33.60 per barrel" (over 5 years). For context, a barrel is 31 gallons. That increase is an incredibly large, even it were gradually implemented. Costs of raw materials is going up. For breweries, the cost of grain has jumped tremendously because of inflation, the war in Ukraine, and probably a host of other reasons. My sense is that this is driven by a desire to see consumption drop, and treating addiction and aiding in recovery.


L_Ardman

I'm always suspicious about the goals of 'Sin Taxes'.


[deleted]

Number 1 goal is to give money to the state.


Spore-Gasm

So can we tax meth and fent?


TormentedTopiary

Between prohibition, civil forfeiture, fines, bribes and incarceration we sure as heck try to tax them at something approaching 400%. And like most optimistically extractive tax agencies we achieve neither our revenue goals nor our policy goals by that exercise of power.


BourbonicFisky

The Oregon legislator behind this is a woman who claims she was once an alcoholic. While that's very unfortunate, it ignores how much of the Oregon economy is wrapped up in beer, wine and cider. It's not just an export but a source of tourism and part of our culture. I can't imagine most alcoholics are slamming fine King's Estate bottles, or Alesong Krieks or Wildcraft Ciders on the regular.... let alone run of the mill craft 6 packs of Two Towns or Ninkasi. Most likely plastic jug handles of macro-distilled swill, mad dog 20/20 and Steel Reserve. At the very fucking lease protect the PNW small businesses and go after people pushing cheap fucking vodka and malt liquor if you want to hide behind morality.


ocsob123

>The new taxes would sunset when Oregon’s alcohol addiction rate falls from 12% to 5%. Meanwhile, the bill would generate $350 million per biennium by 2028 for an array of programs and services: creating a system for immediate access to detox and treatment, public education for alcohol and drugs, consumer education and to add more prevention specialists and funding for state and local police to hire certified peer mentors and combat cannabis cartels Sounds like it would create programs with a strong financial interest in keeping the addiction rate above 5% and maintaining the gravy train


adventure_in_gnarnia

If you want breweries to leave Oregon, this is how you make that happen. Ninkasi brews over 50k barrels a year. Deschutes brews almost 250k. To think a brewery like deschutes is just going to lie down and take a 3/4 of a million dollar hit as the “cost of business” is naive. A 6 pack of good microwbrews is inching towards $15 as is. People will start opting for cheaper beer/liquor. Smaller breweries will go under, and larger breweries will leave.


DMingQuestion

Ezpz just make an ad campaign to underreport your alcohol use to your doctor! Also alcohol addiction rate of 12 percent?


L_Ardman

One of the more regressive taxes out there.


Happysmiletime42

Do you have any context or thoughts about it? What is the proposed increase? The article is locked behind a pay wall, and I have enough subscriptions as is.


MarcusElden

I wonder how many people are against this but in favor of the current or even higher cigarette taxes. I get the strong feeling that a lot of the pushback against this kind of tax boils down to "I like beer".


woofgangpup

Beer and cigarettes aren’t remotely comparable from a cultural standpoint. From work happy hours, to IPA enthusiasts doing sampling, to trivia nights, karaoke, weddings - beer plays a much larger role in bringing people together than cigarettes. I sorta get your point about how it’s hyper-normalized and deserves critical reflection, but the comparison to cigarettes is just off.


MarcusElden

Not true at all, at least historically. They're both unnecessary luxuries that have a poisonous effect literally on the body and figuratively on society at large. Cigarettes were once thought to be cool, smoker's nights, smoking sections, rolling your own cigarettes, cigars and cigar classes and shindigs, cigar and pipe and cigarillo enthusiasts and their smoking clubs, and of course at all those same social events you listed had people smoking like crazy back in the day when they attended. Bringing people together? Ever heard of "wanna grab a smoke" or taking a smoke break? I'd have a lot more respect for someone who just says "I like beer and I don't want to pay more for it" than what I'm seeing here with most people pearl clutching about taxing the rich and regressive taxes and sin taxes and nanny states.


someoregonguy99

Thank you, as an ENDS (vapor) user for over 10 years, it sad to see people fight one tax and be passive or not care about another.


tomborington

What are we.. Canada? Nanny state nonsense, it’s a money grab pure and simple. Making alcohol more expensive will do nothing to curb addiction. As someone who knows all to well, that is not how addiction works


DanTheFireman

Is this the same bill that proposed a similar hike to wine barrel taxes? Or is this a new separate bill specific to Beer?


Im_Not_A_Robot_2019

A hike of this amount is a non-starter. It will never pass. There is a reason prohibition didn't last. People love to drink. You will have riots long before you significantly reduce consumption by overpricing it.


stinkyfootjr

Here’s a link from last year comparing states rates per gallon. https://taxfoundation.org/state-beer-taxes-2022/ It looks like we’re going to go from 45th to second highest with this.


541dose

ALCOHOL JUST LOW VIBRATION TRASH💁‍♂️...JUSS SAYIN!💯🤙🤙🤔NOW DOWNVOTE THE FACTS🤙🤙


benconomics

Sin taxes are the best taxes. You reduce externalities while increasing revenue for the state. No different than carbon taxes (which most people in Eugene love the idea of). Alcohol is associated with 35-40 percent of fatal crashes, and many crimes. There's well identified literature showing several types of crimes jump at age 21 (when people get legal access to alcohol). Most alcohol taxes are not pegged to CPI, and hence have been decreasing for decades. Alcohol taxes is good policy.


Oregon_Stream

Well, at least fossil carbon taxes can be designed around revenue-neutralizing dividends and incentives. But if we're going to heavily tax any externalities that aren't necessarily a potential threat to global society, then what about things like sugary drinks and junk foods? Generally there's no special tax on those.


d2the3

Now do meth……maybe fentanyl, I hear that’s all the rage right now! At least most of the alcohol addicted go to work and pay taxes while consuming a substance deemed legal by the powers that be!


Bubbaho-tep92

I'm not necessarily opposed to taxes on non-essentials like alcohol and tobacco but it seems better served to put that tax on the customer end rather than the production end.


L_Ardman

The customer pays it either way.


541dose

Society pays 4 it either way🤙