Written by By Pervaiz Shallwani for The Wall Street Journal
State and federal lawmakers said Sunday they have brewed a way to keep local craft beermakers’ profits from going flat.
(The question being: what is the favorite quaff of a black bear? -PGA)
A March 28 New York state court ruling declared unconstitutional a law that had exempted local brewers from a state excise tax and registration fees. Under the ruling, all distributors now have to pay a 14 cent per gallon in state tax and an additional 12 cents per gallon for beer sold in New York City.
Losing the exemption would mean a $434,000 cost increase for a craft brewer that produces 100,000 barrels of beer a year, said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer during a news conference Sunday.
“That’s a staggering amount that could make it difficult for these burgeoning, wonderful businesses to stay in business,” Mr. Schumer said.
State lawmakers announced Sunday a bill that would partially solve the problem, giving New York’s craft brewers—those that produce less than 6 million barrels a year—a 14 cent per gallon tax credit on the first 200,000 barrels produced.
The bill is backed by Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, a Democrat from Brooklyn, and state Sen. Lee Zeldin, a Long Island Republican. Both have notable craft breweries in their districts.
“We have to take action against” the ruling, Mr. Lentol said.
A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said in an email that “different proposals” were being considered to address the court ruling.
“It’s a shame that in state small brewers could be hurt because of this decision,” the spokesman said.
New York brewers would get most of the monetary value of the old exemption back if the state legislation is passed and coupled with a federal proposal introduced in March that would cut federal excise taxes on brewers that make less than 1.9 million barrels a year.
Mr. Schumer is co-sponsoring that bill.
State brewers and bar owners had complained that the court ruling threatened to stunt a booming industry in New York. Bars said it would force them to raise the cost on pints, and brewers said they may move some of their operations to neighboring states.
But the Shelton Brothers, a Massachusetts-based distribution company that brought the lawsuit, had complained the tax exemption and fees were putting out-of-state brewers at an unfair disadvantage.
Shelton Brothers President Daniel Shelton said the move by lawmakers was what he expected. “It’s going to be the same effect, but it’s clear the instate people are supposed to pay the tax the same way we are, but the state has made a decision to give it back to in-state brewers,” he said.
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Hmm… I’m going to have an opinion that makes no one happy here, as per my usual. It’s easy to sympathize with in-state brewers: especially the smallest ones. A break seems in order. And I’m sure the biggest brewers don’t need help. Yet, the biggest brewers often solve that by brewing in-state, like Miller did for many years near Fulton/Syracuse area. They have the money to do that, and be profitable doing that.
On the other hand if Hoppin Frog out of Akron: the epitome of craft brewing, wants to enter the market, they get punished? Well, actually I would say, “yes:” but not so damn much. Skew your market more local, as in in-state, “yes,” but maybe not so bloody much?
I also would like the remainder of that tax to be made up by applying that to brewers who do have multiple facilities across the country, and do produce the most. They certainly can pay for it. We all must pay taxes, and those who have the most use the roads, the laws, the courts and sometimes get tax breaks. Having an in-state facility, if it’s simply one of many, shouldn’t be as much of an advantage as it is.
Hence: the taxes we pay become more small business friendly and encourage competition. All across the board we should be encouraging competition: not merely the biggest of businesses that go ahead and do all they can do eat up or just kill the small fish.