Montgomery County Sen. Jennie Forehand, who has already put in a bill to repeal the new sales tax on computer services, said she will introduce legislation today to triple the taxes on beer, wine and alcohol to replace the tax.
“This computer tax is really bad for the economy,” said Sen. Jennie Forehand. “If you get rid of one tax, you have to find another tax to fill in the funding. We were all looking for something that wasn?t a necessity.”
Del. Bill Bronrott, another Montgomery County Democrat, said he will again introduce alcohol tax hikes in order to put more money in drug and alcohol treatment programs. Those bills have failed several times in committee after heavy lobbying by restaurants, bars, beer distributors and liquor dealers.
One of the attractions of raising the alcohol levies is that they are among the lowest in the nation, and haven?t gone up on beer and wine for 35 years. On liquor, the state tax has been the same for half a century. Federal taxes have gone up on all of them.
Under Forehand?s plan, a typical bottle of wine would go up about 60 cents, a can of beer would go up 4 cents, and a bottle of whiskey would go up 66 cents.
The downside is that even tripling the alcohol taxes raises only about $56 million, not even close to the estimated $200 million the new sales tax on computer services is supposed to raise, though some industry question if it will generate that much.
But Senate President Thomas Mike Miller said he?s “vigorously opposed” to repeal of computer services.
“We?re not going to pass an alternative tax in its place,” Miller said. “There?s no alternative that?s acceptable” to the Senate, and after the special session, there?s no stomach for any tax increases.
