Oregon Brewers Hopping Mad Over Proposed 1900% Beer Tax Hike!

Five Oregon state lawmakers want to impose a hefty tax on beer and have introduced a bill that brewers say would cripple them.

Four Portland legislators joined a Springfield senator to introduce Oregon House Bill 2461, which would impose a $49.61 tax on each barrel of beer produced by Oregon brewers.

The tax would raise revenue for the state at a time when budgets are running in the red. Specifically, the bill says it would fund prevention, treatment and recovery programs for those addicted to alcohol and other substances.

The bill's language defends the tax by arguing alcoholism and “untreated substance abuse” costs the state $4.15 billion in lost earnings as well as more than $8 million for health care and nearly $1 billion in law enforcement-related expenditures.

Oregon ranks 49th among states in its malt beverage taxation rate, which has not been raised in 32 years, according to HB 2461.

Brewers say Oregon's low beverage taxation rate is what makes the state such an attractive place for crafting beers. The state’s brewery guild claims it would also amount to the single largest beer tax hike in the nation's history. For the rest of the story, visit the KGW News Channel 8 Web site.