A rise in taxes on beer in Wyoming has been brought up again, a year after the same proposed bill was shot down.
Wine, spirits and beer are all taxed separately, but the advocates in Fremont County are mainly focused on beer.
The bill would raise the tax from 2 cents to 28 cents per gallon of beer. This would be the first increase of the tax on beer in Wyoming in almost 80 years. The last time the tax was raised on beer in the state was right after prohibition.
The increase in revenue for the state from the tax would be put towards rehabilitation and substance abuse centers.
Riverton Mayor Ron Warpness is trying to push the bill.
“We have a crisis center here in Riverton trying to deal with alcoholism of our citizens,” said Warpness, “being the mayor I see the amount of money we are spending caring for these people.”
80 to 85 percent of calls that the police department receives are alcohol related in Riverton. This is not just a problem for Fremont County he said, as he has personally seen the destruction around the state caused by alcohol.
“Who is going to pay for the rehabilitation of someone when they are ready to get off of alcohol?” Warpness asked. “It is very expensive to have them treated.”
The tax on one cigarette is more than the tax on a case of beer in Wyoming. To Warpness, there is a much larger problem with alcohol because cigarettes do not cause domestic disputes or kill people on the highway.
Warpness said there would be about 3.7 million dollars in revenue for the state if the tax increased to 28 cents per gallon.
Mike Moser, the executive director of the Wyoming State Liquor Association said, “they are trying to get the responsible many to pay for the irresponsible few.”
“One of the reasons for the tax is that they call it a user’s fee,” Moser said.
A user’s fee is something you pay for and you get, Moser explained.
“It would only be a user’s fee if everyone who drank beer went to rehab,” he said.
Moser said that they want revenue from the tax put entirely towards substance abuse.
“The majority of substance abuse nationally is not alcohol; it is prescription medication and other illegal drugs,” he said.
Moser said that raising the beer tax to cover all substance abuse does not make much sense.
“I don’t see those advocates proposing a tax on prescription drugs due to abuse or on high fat foods causing obesity,” said Moser. “It just does not make much sense to take one specific product and increase taxes on it when there are so many other products that can be abused.”
The tax increase on beer would potentially cost both the consumer and the brewers more money. This concerns Moser because the vast majority of beer drinkers do not abuse the product. He said that he thinks funding substance abuse centers is a good idea, but that this is not the way to do it.
The Interim Revenue Committee already killed a proposal to raise beer tax and is waiting to see if there will be another. Moser assured that they will continue to oppose it.
