USA: Raising beer tax would hit family-owned businesses in the beer industry in Michigan

Raising the beer tax is considered a bad move that would hit family-owned businesses in the beer industry especially hard, The Detroit News suggested in an article, May 30. Raising the beer tax will also have a negative impact on hard-working middle-class men and women who are already struggling to make ends meet.

It will also send more commerce to other states, already a chronic problem in border counties that would be exacerbated by a higher beer tax.

The News' suggestion is surprising, given its record of vigorous opposition to any tax increases.

The fact is Michigan's beer industry represents a bright spot on Michigan's otherwise bleak economic landscape. Michigan beers win awards and are nationally recognized. All told, the Michigan beer industry supports nearly 35,000 jobs and contributes nearly $2.2 billion to the state's economy.

Raising beer taxes now will have a devastating effect on the beer industry, strangling the microbreweries, brew pubs, retailers and other family-owned small businesses that provide good-paying jobs to tens of thousands of people across Michigan.

Michigan's beer taxes are already higher than those in any other Great Lakes State. For example, our beer taxes are more than 300 percent higher than Wisconsin's.

In this slumping economy, nobody can afford to swallow much more. The bottom line: Everyone loses when Lansing raises beer taxes.