| The Issues |
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WOULD YOU LIKE A FEE WITH THAT DRINK?TELL THEM TO PUT A CORK IN IT!The SF "mitigation fee" is a tax increase in disguise! In short, this tax will mean:
Tell the Supervisors to oppose the alcohol "mitigation fee," We need your help NOW!! Read the latest response from CAHJ and San Francisco's hospitality industry here. Click here to read CAHJ's initial response to the proposal. Click here to read the legislative digest of the proposal. Click here to read its actual language. Click here to read the study that allegedly justifies the proposed tax. NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO RAISE NEW TAXES!
Yet, here we go again...some San Francisco Supervisors want to add another fee in the City. This time they want to put a new fee on every glass of wine, bottle of beer, or cocktail you purchase. That’s right, every drink on every tab, bill, and receipt. Even worse, this would add to the taxes already paid every time you purchase a drink, and you don't even get to vote on it! Overall, Californians were hit with $12.5 billion in new taxes in 2009. Increasing taxes on wine, beer and spirits will create a domino effect resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of hospitality jobs among those who can least afford it – waiters and waitresses, store clerks, busboys and bartenders. California’s hospitality industry derives a substantial portion of its jobs and sales from beverage alcohol. For example, restaurants that sell distilled spirits earn on average more than 25 percent of their income from alcohol sales. If this income is depleted through more new taxes, jobs will be lost and even more California businesses may be forced to close. Catchy slogans, such as “nickel a drink,” hide the fact that these taxes or fees will impose a dramatic new burden on restaurants and other small businesses in California. A nickel a drink really means that the tax on spirits will increase from $3.30/gallon to $7.57/gallon, on wine will increase from $0.20/gallon to $1.48/gallon and on beer from $0.20/gallon to $0.73/gallon. An additional 23,000 jobs in California will be threatened and consumers will pay up to 100 percent more per drink The government already collects twice as much in alcohol taxes than the industry makes in profit. The tax burden on beverage alcohol is so high that federal, state and local governments already collect more than $2 in taxes for every $1 that the industry (suppliers, wholesalers, retailers and restaurants) earn in profits.  |
Millions of your friends and neighbors, waiters, bartenders and small business owners who run your local hotels, bars and restaurants will have their jobs threatened this year as lawmakers propose to increase alcohol taxes. The last time Federal taxes were raised on alcohol, $1.3 billion in wages were lost and 98,000 people found themselves out of work.
Spread the word by telling your family, friends and colleagues about us so they too can join in and make their voices heard.
Join the California Alliance for Hospitality Jobs (CAHJ)! You will receive updates on pending legislation and information from CAHJ and our national partners, giving you the power to fight new taxes and fees on beverage alcohol.
Our state’s decision makers need know that hospitality workers play an integral part in California’s economic recovery. 
CAHJ is a coalition of employees, suppliers, restaurateurs, business owners trade associations and concerned citizens who work in and with the hospitality industry. If you have any questions about our fight, drop us a note.
