Alcohol Taxes
* Re “Tippler Tax a Long-Shot Try for County Aid,” June 24: While the power to locally tax alcoholic drinks sold/drunk at a bar or restaurant seems “ridiculous” to apologists for the booze industry, it’s a user’s fee and insurance policy for the Board of Supervisors, seeking to meet the public health and safety needs of their constituents.
Assemblyman Anthony Villaraigosa’s (D-Los Angeles) modest proposal misses the revenue mark in setting its sights too low. Most alcoholic beverages are sold at supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores or mini-marts, etc., for off-premises consumption. Most booze imbibed is beer and wine, 83% and 12%, respectively. Beer and wine enjoy one of the lowest tax rates in the nation--20 cents per gallon. Under California’s antiquated by-the-gallon tax structure, so-called hard liquor taxes contribute almost half of California’s total alcohol tax revenues, a paltry one-half of 1% of total revenue.
Equalizing our state alcohol-tax structure and hiking the rate by the ounce to an equitable level among comparable states would go a long way to addressing the legitimate public service needs of any county in California.
RAY CHAVIRA, Member
L.A. County Commission
on Alcoholism
Palmdale
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