I love that Oregon doesn’t have sales tax and hated those years I was a student in Washington State and had to pay theirs. But I’ve always thought “sin taxes” were just fine because they don’t apply to me; I don’t smoke (and abhor it) and drink very little.
I haven’t done the research to know if sin taxes have a dramatic effect on purchases of said sin, but my guess is that the tax increases of a few coins every once in a while probably don’t keep many people from smoking and drinking. Of course, that doesn’t really seem to be the point (to discourage sinners into righteousness). But some Oregon lawmakers recently proposed a tax increase of 1900% on barrels of beer. The funds would go toward rehabilitation programs—a worthy cause, yes. But 1900% seems excessive, even to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if Adventists and Mormons were behind this one.
KGW story
Oregonian story
Proposed bill
Smallish breweries are concerned that this new tax could put them out of business, and pretty much all the breweries say they’ll be passing this cost increase onto the consumer. It’s not going to affect me—I’m not so much a beer-disliker as I am a beer-loather—but Portland’s kinda proud of its microbreweries and this could disable a lot of them. This just doesn’t seem like a great idea.
I don’t have a better alternative to propose; honestly, I’m just being pigheaded. But how ‘bout a saturated fat tax? YES! Tax Twinkies and donuts and corn dogs! Or maybe put those holier-than-thou tofu eaters to task. Tax Brussels sprouts! Wheat germ! Prunes! Vitamins that pass through your system whole!
Any thoughts from you beer drinkers out there?
