It’s nearly ten minutes until the start of the hearing for HB 2461 in hearing room A at the capitol building. The beer supporters are in attendance, sitting towards the back of the hearing room with SNOB shirts and “I heart Oregon beer” buttons. As a whole, I’d say they clean up very nicely. The supporters of the bill sit closer to the front, wearing stickers that read “Now’s the Time!” The room is not quite at capacity, but it’s filling up. There’s likely to be strong opinions expressed from both sides of the beer tax issue.
I drove up from Portland with Brain Butenschoen of the Oregon Brewers Guild and Jamie Floyd of Ninkasi Brewing Co. in Eugene. Floyd will be testifying today and during the drive he assured me that he was not nervous. The hearing is old hat for Butenschoen, he’s been to three of them (the beer tax seems to be a perennial suggestion), but with the states budget woes the stakes might be a bit higher this time.
Now at the start of the hearing, the overflow room has been opened. So it begins.
Update: 8:30 AM
Rep. Cannon suggests that the tax is reasonable. He maintains that an increase in the excise tax will not be passed on to beer drinkers, and that the increase will only amount to 14 cents per glass (12 oz.). Yep, he’s sticking with 14 cents, regardless of the fact that no-one drinks a glass of beer.
“A states tax rate is a poor predictor of beer price.”
<img class=”blogImageCenter” src=”https://post.portlandmercury.com/images/blogimages/2009/02/23/1235406679-dsc01788.jpg” alt=”efc1/1235406679-dsc01788.jpg” width=”500″ height=”375″ /
Update: 8:50 AM
Kurt Widmer, Jamie Floyd of Ninkasi, and Christian Ettinger of Hopworks have just testified.
Ettinger: HUB is planning to open a second location in Portland in 18 months, but says he would move the location to Washington if the beer tax passes.
Floyd: Wonders why the State isn’t going after Pfizer for the meth problem rather than using beer tax revenue to cover the costs of addiction treatment.
As for the why beer makers say this tax increase will wind up as a $1.50 per pint for consumers at the tap: “Distributers have margins that have historically worked for them. We got our estimate based on what distributors have historically done.”
Update: 9:23 AM
The debate here seems to be split between the advocates for alcohol/drug treatment and opponents of expensive beer, which would negatively affect the brewing community. There is little discussion on how this tax would affect the State’s budget deficit. There has just been some fairly intense testimony from a couple of ex-addicts, as well as cogent discussion about mark-up from Steve Moore of Philadelphia’s Steaks and Hoagies (Oregon’s smallest licensed craft brewery).
Moore: Much of mark-up comes from recovering beer waste (from pouring, cleaning lines, etc.).
A quip by Gary Fish of Deschutes Brewery that this tax is an attack on brewers received a sharp retort from Rep. Riley: “No matter what we do. I guarantee you it’s not a direct attack on anyone. And to say so offends me.”
Update: 10:10 AM
I’m surprised by how much beer there is in the room. Counted so far: a case of bud, a sixer of Widmer and a single bottle of Full Sail brought in by a woman who’s point seemed to be that she only drank one beer a month.
BTW, I apologize for the blurry photos. My camera has gone feral.
Let’s tax stupidity instead. Then Ben Cannon would really be hurting.
It would be interesting to know who the advocates for alcohol/drug treatment centers are and what for profit treatment centers they represent. It’s become pretty common knowledge this industry is milking thousands of individuals out of hard earned monies and even causing personal bankruptcies and lost jobs. All the while their ex-addict facilitators drive around in new Corvettes.