MADISON -- Two Democratic legislators vowed Monday to try to tap the state's beer drinkers by seeking approval of a fivefold increase in Wisconsin's $2-a-barrel beer tax, which has not been raised in 38 years.
Wait. Beer lovers shouldn't cry in their brew just yet.
Rep. Terese Berceau and Sen. Fred Risser, both Madison Democrats, acknowledge that their beer-tax idea will likely go flat in the Capitol. They are, after all, taking on what one measure supporter called a "sacred Wisconsin beverage."
"I am not predicting it's going to pass," Berceau said of her proposal to boost the $2 tax to $10 a barrel to fight drunken driving and treat alcohol addiction and mental illness. "I'm kind of fooling around with holy water here."
Still, Wisconsin's beer tax hasn't been raised since "man walked on the moon," said Berceau, whose efforts to raise the tax have failed in the past.
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Berceau said her plan would raise the tax on a six-pack from 3.6 cents to 18 cents. Overall, it would cost beer drinkers $40 million to $48 million more a year, she estimated.
Risser defended the $8-a-barrel increase, noting it would do little but index the beer tax for inflation since its last increase 38 years ago.
He voted in 1969 to raise the tax from $1 a barrel to $2, and he said none of the predictions then that it would devastate the state's economy came true.
According to the National Beer Institute, Wisconsin ranked sixth in beer consumption in 2006, with an average of 38.2 gallons consumed for every person 21 and older.
Wisconsin's $2-a-barrel tax is third lowest in the nation, behind the 59-cent levy in Wyoming and the $1.86 tax in Missouri.
In Madison, officials lined up to distance themselves from the beer proposal.
"I want the residents of (my) Senate district to know that I will fight this proposal with all my power," state Sen. Roger Breske (D-Eland), the former president of the Tavern League of Wisconsin, said in a statement.
Rep. Jim Kreuser of Kenosha, leader of Democrats in the Assembly, issued a statement denouncing the plan late last week -- before Berceau officially announced it.
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"There are dozens of ways to expand treatment programs without raising the beer tax," Kreuser said.
Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) trashed the idea during a speech at the state Republican Party convention over the weekend.
An aide to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle noted that the governor didn't ask for the beer tax to be raised, so he would get involved only if the Legislature acts.
Berceau insisted the tax increase is the right thing to do, especially in a state known for binge drinking among adults and college students.
Backing Berceau's proposal are: the Wisconsin Prevention Network; the American Society of Addiction Medicine; Mothers Against Drunk Driving; the Mental Health Association of Wisconsin and the National Association for the Mentally Ill of Wisconsin.
Michael Miller, a Madison-area physician who heads the American Society of Addiction Medicine, said Wisconsin's history, culture and politics has treated beer as a "sacred Wisconsin beverage." Raising the tax is needed and overdue, Miller said.
-- Copyright © 2007, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune
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