NC panel says DWI could be financed with beer tax

Modern Brewery Age, Nov 22, 2004

AP--Additional patrol officers, investigators and trainers are needed to beef up North Carolina's effort to combat drunken driving and the money to hire them could come from a higher tax on beer.

Members of the Governor's Task Force on Driving While Impaired considered last week whether charging beer drinkers an extra 5 cents per can or bottle could pay for changes. The state's current tax of 5 cents a can or bottle hasn't changed since 1969.

"The effect of inflation has been to essentially repeal that tax," said Duke University economics professor Phil Cook, who also told board members that other drivers bear much of the cost when drunken drivers get in accidents. "Beer drinkers are heavily subsidized by everybody else."

Cook noted the current tax on beer brings the state about $90 million a year and doubling the tax would bring in about $176 million. The money doesn't double because some would drink less.

Taxes on wine and liquor bring the state $114 million annually.

Task force Co-chairman James Harden pointed out the panel's job was to recommend solutions, not to suggest how to pay for them. But several members acknowledged their recommendations require money and that some increase in the beer tax would help.

The 35-member panel of law enforcement officers, lawmakers, prosecutors and others expects to make recommendations to the governor in January.

Cook and others acknowledged that all beer drinkers don't drive drunk, but he said boosting that tax is more fair and targeted than having other drivers pay more in insurance and taxes.

Panel members also are pushing to require judges to accept a reading of 0.08 or more on an Intoxilyzer machine as sufficient for a conviction.

Another proposal was to require anyone arrested on DWI to have a breath machine installed in the car so a driver couldn't start the vehicle without blowing into the device.

Robert Foss, a highway safety researcher at the University of North Carolina, argued that the device targets the real problem: drunken people attempting to drive. The state now revokes the license of drivers who refuse a blood alcohol test from an officer, but revoked licenses don't stop repeat drunken drivers, Foss said.