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CAT Tracks for September 1, 2009
IL - A NOT-SO-CHEAP DRUNK |
Not to panic!
Amongst the moaning and gnashing of teeth in Cairo, advice for frugal shoppers...
From the KFVS TV Channel 12 Website...
Illinois alcohol prices go up September 1st
By CJ Cassidy
CAIRO, IL (KFVS) - Starting Tuesday folks in Illinois should expect to pay more for a drink.
The new excise tax rate will almost double taxes on liquor and wine, and also raise the cost of beer.
Still not everyone's disappointed about the price hike.
It boils down to what state you live in.
Retail sellers in Illinois are not happy, but store owners in Missouri consider it good news.
"College students buy more liquor," said Andy Patel of Cape Girardeau.
He now hopes his clients also include customers who cross the bridge from Illinois.
He says he can't help hoping as he orders more liquor for his shelves.
"Rather than pay big amount of money in taxes over there they would come here and buy some liquor," Patel said.
Across the river though, store owners in Cairo are hardly buzzing with excitement.
"I'm obviously against it," Debbie Chumbler said. "We're here across the river from Kentucky and Missouri and we don't know what it's going to do to our sales."
Still, customers say they know how they plan on spending their money when it comes to alcohol.
"You're gonna always look for a cheaper price, always," said Theo Gerin of Cairo.
"Liquor prices are already high enough," said Danny Brown. "What it's gonna do is have people go to Sikeston, Cape Girardeau to get what they want to get."
Debbie Chumbler says the tax increase probably won't hit home for most of her customers until it goes into effect September 1st.
In the meantime, she's working on updating her books.
"They formulated it somehow on alcohol content or the proof so it's an increase of 90 percent in excise taxes probably translate to $2 for a fifth of liquor, 50 cents on half pint and dollar on a pint," she said.
Beer will also go up, and some customers say the high prices may even force them to change their drinking habits.
"Be more careful about spending like food and everything else," Gerin said.
That's exactly the type of customer Andy Patel hopes will show up at his store.
The Illinois Department of Revenue meanwhile, says the money from the tax increase will go toward improving roads, bridges and schools across the state.
And, it's not just "sinners" paying more at the store...
From the Southern Illinoisan...
Some state sales taxes go up today
By John O'Connor, The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD - Illinois consumers will pay more for toiletries, candy, soft drinks and liquor starting today as lawmakers raise cash to pay for a statewide construction program.
Most candy - currently carrying a 1 percent sales tax - will be taxed at 6.25 percent. And it'll be the same for shampoos and toothpaste that, until now, were taxed at the lower rate if shopkeepers deemed they had a medicinal effect.
Bottled soft drinks with added sweetener or flavoring, such as iced tea, will be taxed more, just like soda pop is now. And liquor distributors will pay more for alcohol. That cost invariably will be passed on to consumers.
All told, the changes should raise about $150 million a year toward a $30 billion roads-and-schools building plan. The program also includes hundreds of millions of dollars for local pet projects of lawmakers.
Gov. Pat Quinn also approved hikes in the cost of driver's licenses and plates and OK'd video poker in places such as taverns to increase revenue - scheduled to bring in $600 million more annually - to pay for what officeholders said was a long-overdue plan to put people to work and improve the state's infrastructure.
"Most retailers are in a position of saying we need a capital bill, this was part of a way to get it, and so we're living with it," said David Vite of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.
Most of the sales-tax changes attempt to streamline the system. While food and drugs have been taxed at 1 percent for the past quarter-century, some products - a dandruff shampoo or a sensitivity-reducing toothpaste, for example - have qualified for the lower rate, but that is changing.
"The marketing information on the outside of the box will not determine its tax rate," Illinois Revenue Department spokeswoman Susan Hofer said. "If you buy shampoo, you pay the general sales tax rate."
Lawmakers used definitions from a national sales-tax streamlining project. But that definition is still sticky when it comes to candy. Until now, candy has been taxed as food, but will go to the higher rate - unless it has flour or needs refrigeration. Critics have questioned why licorice, which contains flour, should be exempt from higher sales tax.
In many communities, the sales tax is higher because local governments impose their own tariff on purchases.
Liquor excise taxes, paid by distributors but undoubtedly picked up by consumers, will increase as well.
They equate to a 2.6-cents increase on a six-pack of beer, 13 cents on a bottle of wine, and 81 cents for a fifth of liquor.
One prominent distributor, a company controlled by Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, filed a Cook County lawsuit last week to stop the tax. His company claims the law unfairly singles out distilled spirits, applying a heavier share of the tax increase on hard liquor than on beer and wine.
A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
