Ohio beer industry protests beer tax proposal

Modern Brewery Age, March 28, 2005

Ohio Governor Bob Taft has proposed an increase of beer and commercial-activity taxes in his proposed biennial budget for the state. The porposal would double excise taxes for beer and wine and add a new tax for gross sales.

Beer industry figures were united in their oppostion to the tax proposal.

"I wonder if this reeks of a social agenda," Frank LaRose, an owner and head of government affairs for the House of LaRose beer distributor, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Representatives from Anheuser-Busch and the Miller Brewing Co. have testified against the taxes before the Ohio House Ways and Means Committee in Columbus. They said the plan would reduce sales of beer in the state, cost jobs at their breweries in Ohio and would hurt lower-income people.

"It's a matter of being disproportionate. It isn't fair to single out an industry and not tax any others," said Dan Greathouse, president of Heidelberg Distributing Co.

The governor's spokesman, Mark Rickel, told the Plain Dealer that the governor did not boost hard-liquor taxes because they are already higher than taxes for beer and wine. Beer and wine wholesalers noted that the reason liquor is taxed more is because it has a higher percentage of alcohol than beer and wine. The more alcohol, the higher the excise tax.