No Drink Tax

WASHINGTON – Today the American Beverage Institute (ABI), which represents over 200 New Jersey restaurants, denounced the alcohol tax hike in the state budget which is being heard today in both the Assembly and Senate Budget Committees. Increasing alcohol taxes costs jobs and disproportionally hurts those who are least able to pay them.

For winemakers, distillers, wholesalers, and retailers that have already been under severe strain in this recession, raising beverage taxes by 25 percent will send an estimated 1,000 New Jersey residents straight to the unemployment line,” said ABI Managing Director Sarah Longwell.

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.

“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, New Jersey could not pick a worse time to increase taxes.”