Bill introduced to Nebraska Legislature could increase tax on alcohol

A new bill was recently introduced in the Nebraska Legislature. A part of this bill is a proposed tax increase on all alcohol that is delivered to businesses.

If passed, here is what the taxes on alcohol would be (per gallon):

Beer would go up from $0.31 to $1.38, Wine would go up from $0.95 to $3.51 and Spirits would go from $3.75 to $12.28.

“It could shut us down, there’s enough money involved in there to where it actually takes away from any profits we have, anything like that on the beer which significantly hurts our company,” Co-founder and President of Blue Blood Brewery Company, Brian Podwinski said.

Local Brewery, Blue Blood, says this increase will have a big impact, forcing them to raise their prices and possibly re-evaluate their entire businesses.

“Your going to see probably a $2 increase on the six pack costs to our customers out of the market,” Podwinski said.

Blue Blood Brewing Company sells a six pack of beer for around $8. If this proposal was in place, the cost would be between $9 and $10.

Podwinski says this will affect everybody because everybody will be paying more money for the same product businesses are paying for.

“We are small businesses here in Nebraska as breweries and that tax increase, we only have so much room to charge other people and still have them buy our product,” Podwinski said.

The bill is sponsored by Senator Tom Briese. He says the state’s tax system is currently not fair and not balanced. The bill is suppose to alleviate some of the property taxes payed for by everyone.

Although Blue Blood Brewing Company doesn’t have a plan yet, If the proposal ends up passing, Podwinski says they might have to move out of Nebraska because if they ship the beer out of state then they don’t have to pay the excise tax.

“Why would I want to spend my time growing in Nebraska and having those extra costs involved, what if I can reach out of state markets and grow that way as well, that may be the direction we will have to focus on,” Podwinski said.