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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

New Senate Revenue Proposal: Sales Tax Reduced, Beer Tax Now in Play

This Washington   April 6, 2010 at 9:34 am Josh Feit

This article was originally posted yesterday.

The state Senate offered up a new proposal to the House this weekend in the ongoing revenue package standoff.

The basic standoff: The House doesn’t want a sales tax increase; the Senate, which initially proposed a 0.3 percent increase for $312 million, does.

The Senate’s latest offer includes a 0.1 percent sales tax increase, which would raise about $100 million. (They had been at 0.2 compromise last week, which would have raised about $200 million.)

Ironically, they have agreed to a $30 million tax on candy and gum, which the House initially pushed but dropped last week as a peace offering to the Senate. (The Senate had opposed the gum and candy tax all session.)

And as we reported on Friday, there’s a new tax—a beer tax. The tax is at 50 cents a gallon, raising $57.8 million.

Beer industry lobbyists told us on Friday that they would not object to a tax if the money was targeted at alcohol treatment programs. The Senate says the near-$60 million in revenue has not been earmarked for anything specific yet.

The Senate’s total revenue package comes in at about $800 million, which is where they’ve been (down from $900 million) since the special session began. The House is at about $800 million too, but they rely more on a longer list of B&O taxes and killing some exemptions—like a $50 million exemption for big banks and a $41.5 million sales tax exemption for out-of-state shoppers.




  • hobgoblin

    Way to go, Oly Progressives. Your drive to avoid regressive taxes really hits the super-rich in the nuts, what with all the Kit Kats and Coors they buy. Meanwhile, the poor will go unscathed as they tend toward carrots for dessert and unwind with a few nice tall glasses of tap water on the weekend.

  • Research Is Good

    Actually alcohol consumption has been shown to be one of the least regressive of consumption taxes.http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2010/03/higher-taxes-on-alcohol.php

  • hobgoblin

    Actually, that data looks to apply to “alcohol” rather than “beer” which is a subset of “alcohol.” All that Pinot and McCallan 12 consumed by the upper quintile wouldn't be taxed under this proposal. Right?

  • Josh Feit

    Just beer. And Microbrews are exempt.

  • andy

    Senate, why to you hate children and pot bellied middle aged men?

  • http://spifflines.blogspot.com/ John Bailo

    Follow Obama's lead…install and Asset Tax on interest and dividend income. Then we can reduce sales, business, capital gains and prevent income taxes.

  • David

    Another option would be for the state to spend less of our money, then we wouldn't have to raise anyone's taxes…rich or poor.

  • SEN

    There are 15.5 gallons in a keg or $7.75 in tax for a keg. Right now, a keg of Rainier is $81 (if your bar is supplied by one of the two biggest distributors in town) and a keg of Miller high Life is $88. In other words, that little $.50/gallon tax equals an 8.7% INCREASE on a keg of Rainier. Who will pay that? Bar owners first, consumers second. Check my math but that doesn't sound good for nightlife.

    What say you, Meinert?

  • SEN

    Josh, can you supply the language corroborating your “microbrews are exempt” statement? I can't find it.

  • mathewrenndawgrenner

    Well I am not rich and this is one tax that I will never pay. Is the point of this tax revenue or social engineering. Taxes for social engineering are wrong. Still there is a part of that hopes that less demon alachol will be sold in this state

  • Josh Feit

    Sen,

    I've only got the Senate proposal in a weird zip file that I can't link, but here's the language in what they sent to the House:

    “Beer; additional tax of 50cents/gallon; micro exempt”

  • Soundmind

    They should make it 25 cents a can of PBR and put it straight toward the states health inititives to make up for the posers idolizing a symbol of workers pensions being screwed.

  • http://twitter.com/fattailed fattailed

    Exempting microbrews from a beer tax is the most absurdly tone-deaf proposal the State Dems have come up with in a session that was short on euphony to begin with.

  • Cook

    can we expect erica to decry the sexism of a beer tax? (no, seriously)
    http://www.ias.org.uk/resources/factsheets/drin…
    ^^the last page is where the data is at. and i know it's for great britain, but it's the best i could do

  • Sarajane46th

    I am in favor of the Big Beer tax for social engineering reasons. However, the cynic in me thinks that the Senate included it as a poison pill and is daring House Democrats to vote for it in an election year when the very powerful beer lobbyists are watching.

    The Senate needs to get over itself and do the right thing, which is to forget increasing the sales tax and to close those corporate tax loopholes they are avoiding, starting with the big out-of-state banks. The beauty of closing tax loopholes is that they keep on paying back, year after year, while the sale tax expires in three years.