House Passes Louisiana Alcohol Tax

As Louisiana continues to look for ways to remedy our current fiscal woes, another tax has just passed the house and is on it's way to the senate. The Louisiana House of Representatives has voted 76-25  in favor of raising taxes on beer, wine, malt beverages and liquor.

If this new tax passes, it will go into effect April 1st. The good news is that the tax won't be as steep as the cigarette tax, and should only slightly raise the cost.

From nola.com -

Taxes on liquor, sparkling wine and wine with a lower alcohol content would go up less than a cent per fluid once. Some wine with higher alcohol contents would go up between one or two cents per fluid once. Beer taxes would go up less than a penny per bottle.

The bill won't be raising the alcohol tax nearly as high as Gov. John Bel Edwards had wanted. The tax is estimated to raise $4.4 million before June 30th. The original tax proposed by Edwards would have have generated $9 million for the current budget deficit and $27 million to fix next year's problem.

So, I guess it could be a whole lot worse, and it's going to generate funds we desperately need.