Increase alcohol tax

This bill increases the tax on malt beverages (2.4 cents a 12 ounce bottle) to fund alcohol and drug treatment and prevention programs.

How low is the Wisconsin beer tax?

Wisconsin’s beer tax has lost 83% of its value due to inflation since 1969
Wisconsin has the third lowest beer tax in the nation (6.5¢ per gallon)(3.6¢ a six-pack) (0.6¢ a 12-ounce bottle)

The great majority of Wisconsin beer producers pay very little in state beer tax
- 79% of all beer producers in Wisconsin pay between $0 and $5,000 annually in state beer tax
- 64% of Wisconsin beer producers pay less than $1,000 annually in state beer tax
- Only 4 out of 66 beer producers in Wisconsin pay more than $100,000 in annual state beer taxes. (Miller alone pays over a $1 million)
Over 92% of all beer producers in Wisconsin pay only half ($1.00 a barrel) of the Wisconsin beer tax (because they produce less than 50,000 barrels a year)
- Only Miller is taxed entirely at the full $2.00 a barrel tax
- Leinenkugel, Pabst, New Glarus and Mike’s Lemonade are taxes at a combination of the 50% and 100% rate
Only 31% of all beer produced in Wisconsin is taxed at all!
- 69% is exported Wisconsin tax free (5.9 million barrels exported of 8.5 million barrels produced)
Miller, alone, generated 77% of all of our beer tax revenue from in-state producers
The top four, Leinenkugel, Miller, Pabst and Mike’s Lemonade account for 95% of all of our revenue from in-state producers

The Berceau proposal is to raise the state beer tax from $2.00 a barrel to $10 a barrel
- If the beer tax was increased by inflation from 1969, it would be $10.85 a barrel
In easy to understand terms, the Berceau proposal would add only 2.4¢ to each bottle of beer
- Or, from the current 0.6¢ a 12-ounce bottle, to 3¢ a bottle
- It would raise the state tax from the current, 3.6¢ a six-pack to 18¢ a six pack
The current state beer tax raised $9.7 million in FY2005-06
The Berceau proposal would raise our revenue to approximately $50 million

The average drinker will not even feel the effect of an increase
- Beer producers are not concerned about the “average” drinker
- They know that most of their revenue comes from price-insensitive heavy drinkers
- 10% of all drinkers consumer 43% of all beer
- 20% of all drinker consumer 85% of all beer
Even for a heavy drinker who consumes a six pack a day, the Berceau increase would only cost you an additional $1 a week
Heavy and addicted drinkers who account for most of the beer consumption in the U.S. rightly pay the most in beer taxes, since their drinking imposes the greatest cost on society
If a 3¢ per bottle tax causes you a financial burden, you have greater problems to worry about than the beer tax
The moderate-drinking majority of drinkers consume relatively little alcohol and pay a negligible amount of alcohol taxes
Alcoholic beverages are cheaper (25% less after adjusting for inflation) today than they were in the 1960s and 1970s. (Institute of Medicine, National Research Council)

The alcohol industry is financially dependent upon underage and pathological drinking
- Nationwide, 37.6% of alcohol (by cost) was misused or illegally consumed ($48.3 billion)
- Another study put it as high as 48.8%
Wisconsin ranks 4th highest per capita for alcohol consumption from beer (Nevada, New Hampshire and Montana rank higher)
Wisconsin is listed among the “Fatal Fifteen” states for the highest underage drinking deaths by the National Safety Board
Over 60,000 Wisconsin residents receive publicly funded alcohol treatment
Over 44,000 OWIs and PACs (prohibited alcohol content) violations in Wisconsin in 2006
6,000 alcohol-related driving injuries in Wisconsin in 2005
369 alcohol-related driving fatalities in Wisconsin in 2005
Alcohol is related to the crimes of about half of Wisconsin’s 22,000 prisoners
70% of our 22,000 prisoners require alcohol or substance abuse treatment

The beer tax is paid by:

Wisconsin breweries on all sales made in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin wholesaler who imports beer into Wisconsin from a foreign country.
The out-of-state shipper who ships beer into Wisconsin from other states.

No Wisconsin beer tax is due on the following:

The $9.7 million raised by the state beer tax last year covered only a fraction of treatment costs
That doesn’t even include the $825 million in annual alcohol-related heath care costs that get passed along to Wisconsin taxpayers
It doesn’t count the estimated $2.7 billion in state:
- Policing and court costs
- Incarceration costs
- Traffic crash costs
- Lost productivity costs
- Academic failure costs
- Premature death costs
Each Wisconsin resident pays only $1.82 a year in beer taxes
But also $18.64 in alcohol treatment costs
… and $154 in alcohol-related healthcare costs
… and $500 in alcohol-related criminal justice and societal costs
Alcohol abuse and addiction cost the nation an estimated $220 billion in 2005
- …more than cancer ($196 billion)
- …and more than obesity ($133 billion)