Tuesday night at City Hall, Bethel’s City Council passed a ballot proposition to ask the voters if they are willing to add 3 percent to the alcohol sales tax to help fund social programs.
One of the longer discussions for Council was deciding whether or not to give Bethel voters the choice of raising the alcohol sales tax come October. If passed, along with the overall sales tax increase, twenty percent of the total taxes collected from alcohol sales would then be allocated to a fund to support community non-profit organizations.
“The current tax is 12 percent. The new tax would be 15 percent and that 3 percent difference between 12 and 15 is what we’re talking about, and that’s what would change, and that’s what would be allocated towards community groups,” said Councilman Leif Albertson, who introduced the ballot initiative.
Albertson said that community organizations have been feeling the brunt and bearing the burden of increased alcohol consumption since May of 2016, when the AC Quickstop Liquor Store opened.
He notes that raising the tax from 12 to 15 percent would place it on par with the current tax for marijuana.
The initiative passed by a 5 to 2 vote, with Mayor Rick Robb and Vice Mayor Fred Watson in opposition. Watson said he thought that the increase was too much, and he said that the Council has not been applying the current 12 percent tax where it was promised, to support community services. He said, “that’s our fault, that’s completely our fault. The burden should not be placed among the residents of Bethel.”
Mayor Robb said in an interviewlast week that one of the reasons he and others have supported legal sales of alcohol in the past - versus illegal sales - was in the hope of reducing the amount of illegal sales.
“And have more control at the point of sale,” said Mayor Robb. “If we raise the price of the legal product too much, it makes the illegal product more affordable.”
But Albertson and others on the Council remained unconvinced.
“You know, an additional 3 percent tax on a twenty dollar bottle - I just - I don’t believe that’s enough to send someone into the arms of a bootlegger,” said Albertson.
When you compare the convenience of purchasing at a liquor store versus the difficulty of trying to find someone who is bootlegging, said Albertson, the price increase just isn’t enough to drive people to illegal sales.
“If you actually look at the increase at the increase of alcohols sales and the increase of alcoholic use since the liquor store opened, there is a huge increase,” said Albertson. “I think the idea that a few, basically pennies on the dollar is gonna make a difference there, I think is not well supported.”
Still, that’ll be up for the voters to decide in October.
Correction: This story originally said "Watson said he thought the increase was too much, and he said the Council has not been applying the current 12 percent tax where it was promised, to support community action grant programs,” however, that fund had not yet been established until this year. The article’s current language clarifies that.