Sunday, April 13, 2008

Shalom Zachar tax in California?

The proposer of the bill is a Democrat, of course. The rationale: "The people who use alcohol should pay for part of the cost to society, just like we've accepted that concept with tobacco . . . " In a sane world, anyone who uttered a sentence like that would be out of public life forever. Just about everybody "uses alcohol" in this society, and the health and other problems generated by people who don't use it responsibly are already paid for to a large extent by the general public. And almost everything alcoholic that someone might buy instead of beer has a higher alcohol content. From Mercury News:
Joe Six-pack will have to pay a lot more to get his buzz on if Assemblyman Jim Beall has his way.

The San Jose Democrat on Thursday proposed raising the beer tax by $1.80 per six-pack, or 30 cents per can or bottle. The current tax is 2 cents per can. That's an increase of about 1,500 percent.

Beall said the tax would generate $2 billion a year to fund health care services, crime prevention and programs to prevent underage drinking and addiction.

"The people who use alcohol should pay for part of the cost to society, just like we've accepted that concept with tobacco," Beall said.

He added that the beer tax hasn't been touched since 1991, and the increase then was meager.

But the freshman lawmaker will have to lift the legislative equivalent of a full keg of beer over his head to get his tax enacted. That's because it would require a two-thirds vote in the Assembly and Senate - and then, because it's a constitutional amendment, it would have to be approved by voters. Republicans say it's a non-starter.

"I predict the shelf life will be very short," said Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Sacramento, vice chairman of the budget committee. "It's a piecemeal approach to the budget that completely avoids any discussion of spending discipline, which is fundamentally why we have the problem that we have." [...]
Time is running short. I'm glad I got to do one last post about chometz before Pesach. (Hat Tip: Drudge)

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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