No Drink Tax

WASHINGTON – Today the American Beverage Institute (ABI), which represents over 200 Indiana restaurants, denounced an alcohol tax increase amendment to HB1604 which is being heard today at 9am in the Senate Appropriations Committee. This amendment would double the state alcohol tax.

Increasing alcohol taxes costs jobs and disproportionally hurts those who are least able to pay them.
 

“Brewers, distillers, winemakers, wholesalers, and retailers have already been under severe strain in this recession,” said ABI Managing Director Sarah Longwell. “Raising beverage taxes will send hundreds of Hoosiers straight to the unemployment line,” she continued.
 

According to the Tax Foundation, individuals earning less than $20,000 per year face federal alcohol tax burdens that are more than 18 times higher than individuals making in excess of $200,000. Not only are hospitality taxes on alcohol regressive, they also contribute to job loss: after the federal government doubled the beer tax in 1991, approximately 60,000 Americans in the brewing, distributing, and retailing industries lost their jobs from a shrunken industry.
 

This new tax would cause an estimated 1,700 Indiana workers to lose their jobs.
 

“Beverage alcohol is already one of the highest taxed consumer products in the United States. Too often, hospitality taxes are treated like an ATM to generate extra revenue to make up for wasteful government spending,” said Longwell. She continued, “as Americans struggle through tough economic conditions, Indiana could not pick a worse time to increase taxes.”