No New Tax Cost Recovery Fee on Beer in Oregon

I wish we could get Republicans like this in D.C.:

Advocates of higher beer taxes said Thursday that they think most Oregonians would be willing to pay a few cents more per glass for their favorite brew to help fund alcohol addiction programs.

But the beer tax idea went flat almost immediately, with House Speaker Karen Minnis signaling that House Republicans have no intention of bending their no-new-taxes pledge, regardless of the cause...

Oregon has some of the lowest beer taxes in the country (they've not been raised since 1977), largely due to the influence of the state's booming craft brewing industry.

Another statistic is worth pointing out, in light of the drive behind this proposal:

"Cheap beer is the direct cause of our out-of-control youth alcohol abuse problems and the damage, death and violence it creates," said Howard Scaman, an Alaska activist who's now working to raise Oregon's tax.

But as Radley Balko points out, Oregon has one of the lowest number of traffic fatalities among drivers aged 15-20 in which the driver had a BAC of greater than 0.10. There were 11 such accidents in the year 2000--in the entire state--or 13.7% of all the state's traffic fatalities in that age group for that year. The national average was 25.6%.