Alcohol taxes: dead for the session?

We are pleased to report that HB 417 which would have raised alcohol taxes dramatically, is dead for the session. The bill was itself a compromise between two “progressive” factions in the House  and it got caught up with further disagreement over various provisions that seemed to “ruin” the compromise and resulted in the bill being killed on a 6-6 basis in the House Taxation Committee on Monday, March 10.

We certainly hope and expect that the concept of raising taxes on alcohol is dead for the session, BUT there is always the possibility that something relating to alcohol tax hikes could be included in the final tax package that is (unfortunately) negotiated behind closed doors. This was done just last year. This is one of MANY aspects of the process in Santa Fe that is anti-democratic and anti-good government. We’ll be keeping an eye out when that tax package becomes public in a few days.

Of course, it is worth noting that if Democrats WANTED to dedicate alcohol taxes to treatment to address our State’s alcohol problems they’d likely have nearly unanimous bipartisan support for THAT. Instead they want to pair allocation of the funds with a major tax hike.