{"id":3189,"date":"2010-01-15T11:39:36","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T16:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=3189"},"modified":"2010-01-15T13:37:20","modified_gmt":"2010-01-15T18:37:20","slug":"taxing-booze-won%e2%80%99t-help-your-competence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/3189\/taxing-booze-won%e2%80%99t-help-your-competence\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxing Booze Won\u2019t Help Your Competence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maryland lawmakers are in trouble.\u00a0 They\u2019ve spent too much money over the past decade; with the economic recession, they now have a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/local\/Lawmakers-rally-around-10-cent-alcohol-tax-8755356-81271577.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">$2 billion deficit<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Cutting spending would seem to be the logical way to reduce the deficit but since Maryland already has the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taxfoundation.org\/research\/topic\/34.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">fourth highest<\/span><\/a> state\/local tax burden in the nation, state politicians are now proposing another tax hike in an attempt to get to number one.\u00a0 Someone\u2019s got to stick it to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taxfoundation.org\/research\/topic\/44.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">New Jersey<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This time Annapolis is out to get the partygoers in Fells Point and Bethesda with a new 10 cents-per-drink tax on alcohol.\u00a0 In total, the booze tax is expected to raise $200 million, though this is still just a fraction of the sum needed to fill the state\u2019s budget gap.<\/p>\n<p>Bars and liquor stores have an obvious motivation to oppose the new legislation but ole <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DHa-AMRSkiw\" target=\"_blank\">\u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Joe Sixpack<\/span>\u201d<\/a> should shudder as well.\u00a0 The tax would total about 55 cents for a bottle of wine and 75 cents on a handle of liquor.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the crowds at Fells Point and Bethesda will finish their drinks and then let Annapolis know that the booze tax is a horrible idea that won\u2019t fill the state\u2019s budget gap.\u00a0 It will, however, upset a lot of drinkers. That\u2019s never promising.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maryland lawmakers are in trouble.\u00a0 They\u2019ve spent too much money over the past decade; with the economic recession, they now have a $2 billion deficit. Cutting spending would seem to be the logical way to reduce the deficit but since Maryland already has the fourth highest state\/local tax burden in the nation, state politicians are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[744,703,105,71],"class_list":["post-3189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-booze-tax","tag-maryland","tag-tax","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3189"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3205,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3189\/revisions\/3205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}