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State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz is looking to boost the state alcohol tax by five cents a drink. According to WGN Radio:
The funds generated from the new tax wouldn't go into the general revenue fund, Feigenholtz said. Instead it would be used to created two treatment funds- one for substance abuse and the other for mental health."You don't see a lot of loss consumers because of small taxes like this, and I think the funding goes a long way," Feigenholtz said.
"For every dollar we spend on substance abuse treatment we save seven somewhere else in our state budget," she added.
The state's alcohol tax currently sits at $0.185 per gallon of beer, $0.73 per gallon of wine, and $4.50 per gallon of spirits. The St. Louis Dispatch's Springfield bureau has a little more on what this all could mean:
The plan is being touted as a “nickel-a-drink” proposal. What that means in real figures, according to the bill language, is more than doubling the current alcohol tax rates, bumping up beer by about 53 cents a gallon (it’s currently taxed at about 18 cents); wine up from the current 73 cents a gallon to $2.01; and spirits up from $4.50 a gallon to $8.77.
The tax increase would be expected to raise in the neighborhood of $254 million annually for the aforementioned funds.
Update: Our stalwart beer guy, Chuck Sudo, pointed out that, according to this post at the Capitol Fax Blog, beer is not included in the new tax proposal.
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Let the people that can't be responsible for their own bodies pay the taxes. Politicians keep telling everyone that it is only a few cents, but that crap adds up.
Kinda like the push for installing more credit card machines for parking meters - you don't feel the effects of the increased fee because you aren't shoving 48 quarters into a meter.
Booooooo.
Man, times are tough. I'll have to forgo Yellow Tail for the Little Penguin. Maybe I'll just go back to Foster's.
I guess my trips back from Michigan will now include a slightly longer layover in Indiana to buy booze in addition to cigarettes.
Hey, don't complain. Look how efficient and well-run all our government services are. Well worth the money!
Raise taxes on alcohol? Hmmm. That's a new idea. I wonder if it'll work. What great creativity - now I see why our government officials get re-elected in perpetuity in Illinois. You know, another thing they could do is tax cigarettes. They could tell us that the tax will go towards anit-smoking programs and then divert the money to bloated govt salaries/pensions and other programs a year or two later. I think I'll call Feigenholtz with that idea.
Sara, don't insult us and tell us that this money will be used for treatment funds.