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Wine tax proposal fails in waning days of legislative session |
By David Sale,
Newberg Graphic reporter
E-mail David at
dsale@eaglenewspapers.com
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As another session of the
Oregon legislature closes, discussions of raising the state beer and
wine tax have once again fallen flat.
But amid the discussion of increasing the beer tax, a
little-discussed amendment would have granted Oregon counties the
ability to levy their own local taxes on beer and wine sales.
House Bill 2171, one of several bills calling for a raise in the
state beer tax, would have dedicated 70 percent of the new revenues
to the Oregon State Police.
But an amendment by the Senate Business, Transportation and
Workforce Development Committee would have also granted counties the
authority to add their own taxes.
State Sen. Larry George (R-Sherwood), a member of the committee,
said he supported the idea in principle, but preferred a “privilege
tax” or licensing fee at the county level, with an exemption for
small producers.
“An industry study shows there’s about 1.5 million wine tourists
who visit Oregon annually — and half the wineries in the state are
in Yamhill County,” he said. “Nobody expected so much traffic to the
wineries and they’re not contributing as much to the local tax base
as hotels with similar assessed values.”
While George had hoped to find a new funding source for the
Newberg-Dundee bypass and other transportation improvements in the
county, other legislators did not share his views. The amendment was
changed to dedicate all local tax revenue to public health purposes,
then stripped from the bill entirely.
George, however, was philosophical: “I don’t know that Yamhill
County would have adopted it, but it would get the discussion
going,” he said. “Even if (a state-level) tax were implemented,
Oregon would only go from 47th to 44th in the rankings of highest
wine tax by state.”
Oregon’s beer and wine tax currently stands at $2.60 a barrel. Only
seven states have a lower beer tax; all of them also have a sales
tax. |
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From
July 7, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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