Battle lines drawn over alcohol taxes [View All]

[The Straight Story]

Battle lines drawn over alcohol taxes
Package stores predict loss of business to N.H.

CHELMSFORD (MA)- Customers like Celeste Crowley are worrying package store owners. She is a regular at Harrington's Wine and Liquors, but if Governor Deval Patrick's proposal to help shore up the state's bleeding finances with a 5 percent alcohol tax is approved, she says she will simply drive a few more miles to tax-free New Hampshire.

"I already go there for cigarettes," she said.

A man browsing the aisles at Harrington's yesterday gave a similar answer. "I like to support my local businesses," said George Laurendeau, a construction contractor who was pushing a cart he had just loaded with beer. "But times are tight, so any time you can save a couple of bucks, you do."

It's in towns like this where battle cries against the governor's proposal are loudest, for what is shaping up to be an ugly fight on Beacon Hill. Arguments against the tax are being prepared across the state, with package store owners saying they are already pushed to the edge by economic problems and tax increases on tobacco. But in towns within driving distance of the New Hampshire border, the argument is most vehement.
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"Obviously it's going to have an impact; that has been proven in the past with increased taxes on tobacco," said Frank Anzalotti, executive director of the Package Store Association. "There's only so much a small business person can bear until it gets to the point where it's not worth running a business anymore."

The Patrick administration says the alcohol tax, one of a series of fees and taxes being proposed to balance the state's budget, would be used exclusively to fund alcohol treatment and prevention programs. Massachusetts, the administration says, ranks in the top 10 percent of states with the highest rates of underage drinking and adult binge drinking.

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"Governor Patrick should just go for it," said New Hampshire state Representative Fran Wendelboe, a Republican who sits on the Finance Committee.

"The higher he wants to raise them, the better," Wendelboe said. "He could raise the cigarette taxes, too, while he's at it, maybe the gasoline tax, as well, so we'll give your citizens a lot of good reasons to come to our beautiful state to visit."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/01/30/battle_lines_drawn_over_alcohol_taxes/