Hub booze tax heads for council vote
A proposed 2 percent booze tax in Boston could go before the City Council this month, said District 2 Councilor Bill Linehan, who is pushing the idea to help fight addiction.
“This is an important initiative,” Linehan said on Herald Radio’s “Morning Meeting” show yesterday. “One of the biggest issues facing the city of Boston and the state of Massachusetts is addiction. Not just opiate addiction, it’s all addictions.”
Linehan has proposed a 2-percent hike on all alcohol sales and says the move would generate $20 million to be used for substance abuse and recovery services. He said the tax would be an investment that would save the city money in the future.
“The impacts of addiction are so broad-based, they hit in the health services field, public safety field, mental health field, homelessness field,” Linehan said. “If we can nip addiction in the bud at an early age, we will save millions and millions and millions of dollars in all of these services being provided to addicts.”
Critics of the plan, including fellow City Councilor Tito Jackson, have said they worry an increase on alcohol taxes in Boston may hurt the hospitality industry and drive business to Somerville or Dedham.