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Rep. Tawna Sanchez has shared with WW the details of a new sales tax on beer and wine she plans to introduce in the next legislative session.
Oregon currently raises money from beer and wine through a “privilege tax” levied on manufacturers and distributors. It’s 8 cents a gallon for beer and 67 cents for wine, amounts that have stayed largely flat for decades.
Sanchez would add a sales tax on top of that, levied at the cash register and paid by consumers. She says she hasn’t yet decided on the amount.
The revenue, she says, will go toward kids. “My proposal is for those taxes to be used for prevention, intervention and recovery services for anyone under the age of 21,” she said in WW’s endorsement interview on Friday.
The alcohol industry is one of the most powerful lobbies in Oregon state politics— and prior efforts by Sanchez to increase taxes on beer and wine have failed to garner sufficient support from her fellow legislators to pass.
Related: Oregon Politics Is Awash in Alcohol Industry Donations
Still, Sanchez says this time around will be different.
Watch the exchange below: