By Denise Ross

 When Meade County Commissioner Dayle Hammock asked West River lawmakers about a bill to increase the tax on alcoholic beverages, he set up an appropriately rowdy end to a rowdy first Rapid City crackerbarrel of the 2008 legislative session. Hammock asked about the prospects for SB61, which would tack another dime or so onto the cost of a beer. (Technically it’s $1.06 per gallon of malt beverage, so the math is easy for, um, anyone who buys beer in gallon jugs.) (Photos by David Larson) 

Hammock noted that counties get none of the tax currently charged on alcohol but deal with most of its fallout - treatment, incarceration, the law enforcement staff, etc.

That is one of the core problems counties are dealing with.

Rep. Mark Kirkeby, R-Rapid City, and former county commissioner, is one of four lawmakers signed onto SB61, and he doesn’t give it much chance of surviving it’s hearing Monday morning before the Senate State Affairs Committee.

Your Bud Light will cost you an extra 10 cents. I don’t foresee that curtailing business a great deal, Kirkeby said to applause from the audience.

Kirkeby said SB61 would generate $35 million, which he contends would ease the property tax burden since counties would have another way to pay for jails, cops, etc. Some of the money would be funneled into Teen Court pograms and the attorney general’s 24/7 program to monitor criminal defendants out on bail for alcohol and drug use. SB61 has the support of the State Bar Association, and the SD Municipal League is neutral, he said.

Not one single dime (of current tax on alcohol) goes back to local property taxpayers. Yet we are stuck with the baggage.

Rep. Don Van Etten, R-Rapid City, is one of the four co-sponsors of SB61 and advocates that drinkers should pay for problems caused by drinking.

Anything that causes the problem ought to help pay for it. 60 % of Pennington County’s budget deals with the effects of alcohol.

Couple the alcohol-related expenses with a state-imposed cap on how much a county’s budget can grow each year (3 %), and the counties get into trouble quickly, Van Etten said.

The other sponsors of SB61 are Sen. Tom Dempster, R-Sioux Falls, and Sen. Jay Duenwald, R-Hoven.

To listen to the hearing at 7:45 am Central time, 6:45 am Mountain, click here, and then click on the Senate State Affairs button. (The audio also will be archived. E-mail me at denise@hoghouseblog.com if you need directions on how to access the Legislature’s audio archive. It’s awesome.)

After SB61 dies in committee, I expect the next petition drive for another 2008 ballot measure to begin.

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