The 3 things you can do to help fight House Bill 2461
The Oregon brewing industry is facing a nearly $50 per barrel increase on beer taxes – an increase of over 1900% – which would make the Oregon beer excise tax the highest in the country. If House Bill 2461 passes, it could result in the loss of up to 3,400 Oregon jobs and devastate an industry that currently supports 5,200 direct and 10,000 indirect employees.
If you oppose this excessive and unfair tax increase, here are 3 simple things you can do to make your voice heard:
1. Write your legislator – This may sound like something you’d hear from your grandmother, but nothing has a stronger impact on legislators than getting a good old-fashioned piece of snail mail. Take a peek at our template letter then customize and send your own version. You can find your legislator at http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/ and a list of Revenue committee members at http://tinyurl.com/crw2gj .
Here is a sample letter that you can send off to your legislator or send out to your e-newsletter or blog. Please feel free to add in your own experience where it talks about how the tax will affect you directly.
Dear Honorable Representative ______________,
Oregon is in the middle of an economic crisis, facing major budget deficits and the potential loss of thousands of family wage jobs. Now, more than ever, the public is looking to our government to provide strategic and smart leadership to turn the economy around.
It is neither strategic nor smart to raise the beer tax by more than 1900%; in fact, it would be unwise and harmful to the economy to approve any increase in Oregon’s beer tax.
The craft brewing industry has been extremely good for Oregon. Oregon breweries directly employ more than 5,200 people at a family wage; 2,300 of those jobs were created in the last 5 years. For every 1,000 barrels of Oregon brewed beer consumed in Oregon during the past 5 years, more than 30 jobs were created.
This green and entrepreneurial industry - which is built on uniquely Oregon advantages such as agriculture, people, and lifestyle – contributes $375 million to the Oregon economy every year. It does this without receiving state tax breaks or subsidies, while continuing to pay tens of millions of dollars in existing excise taxes.
The proposed 1900% tax increase – from the current tax of $2.60 a barrel to $52.21 – would be the single biggest tax increase on beer in US history, giving Oregon the dubious distinction of having the highest beer excise tax in the country. (Insert information about your brewery or beer experience here.)
Any tax increase, and especially the proposed House Bill 2461, would devastate what has been an incredible economic success story for the State of Oregon. At this time and in this economy, our state cannot afford to put more people out of work and harm an industry that is serving Oregon – which is exactly what a tax increase will do.
Sincerely,
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 12:55 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] with news about HR 2461 from a craft brewery perspective, check out Beervana, Brewpublic, and the Oregon Brewers Guild [...]
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I Contacted Senator Morrisette yesterday regarding this bill. I am a former student of his and have had contact over the years. I expressed concern over the theme of the bill to pay for alcohol treatment and the accountability of the agencies providing treatment services. I was a treatment provider for more than twenty years in the Eugene and Portland area. I worked for private for profit and not for profit agencies and consulted with several non-profit agencies. My experience with the agencies who receive funds of this nature provide less than adequate care. So called counselors are under trained and lack the experience necessary to provide any real life changing treatment and are usually over zealous on the punitive end. The on going joke is that these agencies help a person improve their life just enough to get a job where they receive health insurance thus being able to get real treatment. I cited several examples of squandering lottery funds for gambling addiction and tobacco tax money going for a child like prevention and half assed treatment for smoking. Senator Morrisette responded that yes some agencies were of what I described but if they helped a few then it was successful. At what cost to the rest of us is my reply. This is another smoke screen to extort money in the name of a good cause. Mandated treatment does not work. It has been proved over and over and the system feeds itself on this failed cycle of recidivist. How about we drop the tax exempt status of the not for profit agencies who pay their board members and directors like corporate CEO’s and pay their employees jack squat. Just thinking out loud here.