Forty years is too long without an alcohol tax increase
The 2023 New Mexico State Legislature will be dealing with hundreds of bills during this session. Last Friday, Rep. Joanne J. Ferrary (D-37) and Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (D-16) filed House Bill 230 and Senate Bill 259, respectively. They are identical “Liquor Tax Rates & Differential” bills that would create an Alcohol Harms Alleviation Fund (AHA Fund) to increase public safety and address the harms that alcoholrelated incidents cause in New Mexico. Our state has the most alcohol-related deaths per capita in the country. In 2021, 2,274 New Mexicans died due to alcohol, according to the New Mexico Department of Health. The last time the alcohol excise tax was increased was in 1983.
These bills aim to increase the alcohol excise tax to roughly $0.25 per drink and indexing for inflation. This would generate an additional $155 million for the state, which will go directly to prevention and treatment programs. We face economic losses due to injuries and illnesses, productivity losses, healthcare costs, and criminal justice responses to alcoholfueled crimes. These are our family members and friends who are affected. In Taos County, we have little to offer in the way of recovery services. This bill will increase the amount of money appropriated for these services.
“This is one of those bad lists that we are number one on, and New Mexicans want to know what we are going to do about that,” Sen. Sedillo Lopez said.
She continued: “This is our chance to protect public safety, improve public health, reduce excessive consumption and save taxpayers’ money related to alcohol harms.”
Rep. Ferrary stated: “This is common sense legislation to build a better future for us all. We all know someone who has been impacted by alcohol-related harms, and the AHA Fund will provide needed prevention, treatment and other reduction programs. Not only does this bill make New Mexico safer, it invests our economy.”
The legislation calls for a significant portion of the revenue to be appropriated to the Department of Human Services, which will fund programs related to recovery, prevention, treatment services, victim support, domestic violence, drug courts, tribal governments and more. To view the bills in their entirety, please see: HB 230 and SB 259. Co-sponsors include Reps. D. Wonda Johnson (D-5) and Elizabeth Thomson (D-24), and Sens. Shannon Pinto (D-3) and Bill Tallman (D-18). They are supported by activists and researchers throughout the state and country.
The alcohol industry, including the New Mexico Restaurant Association, has fought hard to make sure this increase does not happen. They feel it will hurt their bottom line. It gets down to money over people…again.
Half of New Mexicans don’t drink alcohol and most New Mexicans drink responsibly. Our current tax system has the responsible 80 percent of New Mexicans paying over $400 a year in taxes to subsidize excessive drinking. New Mexico taxpayers are footing a bill that equals $1 for each drink consumed to pay for the costs of the extra police, incarceration, ambulances, emergency room visits and court hearings resulting from excessive drinking. According to the CDC, Taos County ranks number one in the state in alcohol-related deaths, as well as many other statistics related to substance use disorder. While this bill certainly won’t solve the problem, having services available for those who want to find the path of recovery is a big step in the right direction.
Recently, Maryland passed an excise tax in the amount of 3 percent, and “Scientists later found the change reduced alcohol sales 4 percent, cut the number of people injured in alcohol-involved crashes by 6 percent, and reduced unsafe sex and associated infections. And because the alcohol tax was a fixed percent of retail prices, tax revenues there rose 25 percent from 2012 to 2021 even as the volume of alcohol sales declined,” according to an article published by New Mexico In Depth in October.
It is legislation that promotes public safety and health while investing in New Mexico’s future. While the alcohol industry lobby is sure to fight this tooth and nail, we have the cold hard facts on our side. I urge readers to contact our legislators (you can find them on nmlegis.gov, “find my legislator”) and ask them to support this bill. We have all had personal harms to alcohol-related issues, and this is our chance to curb those for future generations. Let’s work on building a better New Mexico for us all.