By snoadmin
As if living in California isn’t already expensive enough, Assemblyman Jim Beall is currently trying to pass a bill that would raise the current beer tax by 1,500 percent, causing the price of a six-pack to rise by $1.80.
In an article from KNBC11.com, Beall said, “The fallout from alcohol consumption costs Californians nearly $36 billion a year in increased health costs, crime, lost productivity, and injuries from accidents and abuse… It’s time for the beer industry to help us with the staggering burden it has helped to create.”
If the bill were to pass, Beall added, the extra revenue would go toward “health and law enforcement services that must cope with the havoc… that is fueled by the alcohol industry.”
During these harsh times of budget cuts and the devalued dollar, we support any plan that will generate money for the health care and law enforcement services. But we don’t believe that taxing only people who like to drink beer is really fair.
The Daily Forty-Niner is pro-health, anti-taxes.
By singling out beer drinkers, this bill expects a specific group of alcohol consumers to pick up a tab that many irresponsible drinkers of all types of alcohol have created.
If alcohol is the cause of “increased health care costs, crime, lost productivity, etc…” as Beall claims, then all types of alcoholic beverages should be taxed.
Sure, beer’s cheap prices and easy accessibility makes it the top choice for the irresponsible drinkers who cause these problems. What would spring break be without it? But that doesn’t mean that other alcoholic beverages don’t contribute just as much.
Who hasn’t had that friend get kicked out of a bar for knocking a tray of drinks out of a server’s hand because they have had one too many Zimas to drink?
And don’t forget about the drunk dialing vodka seems to always induce. Who can honestly say they’ve never been burdened by that call at 3 a.m.?
Punishing only beer drinkers for the damages other drinkers have contributed to is not a very equal way of trying to raise money for health care and law enforcement. If Beall really wants extra money for this, he should raise taxes on all alcoholic beverages.
At least this way whatever rich-person drink he prefers will also be taxed.
