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OPINIONS
Editorial: Beer-tax hike can take addiction programs off state's back burner
Gov. Joe Manchin and other state officials repeatedly note that West Virginia isn't suffering the extent of budget troubles that most other states are, and they are generally correct.
But that doesn't mean the state is flush with cash. It's not, nor will it be in the foreseeable future. The upshot of that is the state has a difficult time finding money to expand current programs or paying for new ones.
But some things simply can't wait. One of those is the pain, suffering and costs associated with drug and alcohol addiction. The toll that addiction takes in West Virginia, from hundreds of lives to an estimated $470 million in direct costs each year, can't be ignored.
That's why a strategy to raise the barrel tax on beer sold in West Virginia merits support in the Legislature. The money generated by the increase would be used to pay for substance abuse treatment and recovery programs across the state.
The state's beer tax has been at $5.50 per barrel since 1966. A bill introduced Monday in the House of Delegates would increase that to $22, or about four cents per bottle or can, and generate about $40 million. Another beer tax bill, reintroduced Feb. 1 from last year's session, would add a penny to the price of each bottle or can by hiking the tax to $11 per barrel and raise about $10 million.
Right now, the state is spending about $8 million a year on treatment efforts, according to Dr. Wayne Coombs, staff leader for the state's Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being. There is no state funding for prevention, early intervention or recovery efforts, he said.
Coombs' group was instrumental in developing for Manchin a statewide plan for countering the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, and Manchin presented the strategies in November. Among other things, the plan proposed spending $23.5 million a year in prevention, early intervention, treatment and recovery efforts. That's a recognition that unless steps are taken to help people end their addictions, nothing is going to change by itself.
Upshur County Republican Bill Hamilton, one of the delegates sponsoring the legislation to raise the beer tax, said he knows first-hand how drug abuse can uproot families because two of his family members served time in prison for crimes related to their methamphetamine addictions. Although both are now recovering, he said, their experience was a wake-up call to Hamilton that treatment and recovery efforts in the state are woefully underfunded.
That's why he and some other delegates are once again trying to raise the beer tax, similar to a proposal last year that was derailed by beer wholesalers. The wholesalers once again are opposed to this bill, saying it's not the right time.
Never mind that the proposed tax increase amounts to a few pennies per bottle of beer, a total less than what brewers themselves have raised prices in the past year, according to Hamilton. And as Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne, points out, it's time the beer industry was a part of the solution, since its product has a role in many people's addiction.
And the time can't be any more appropriate. The deaths keep mounting. The costs to society continue to grow. West Virginia is way overdue in taking meaningful steps to combat this wide-ranging problem, and finding a way to pay for more addiction prevention and recovery efforts is the obvious strategy.
