HB 1281 Summary

• Increases beer and hard cider excise tax from $0.115 to $0.435 per gallon, liquor excise tax from $2.68 to $5.24 per gallon, wine excise tax from $0.47 to $1.24 per gallon, and malt excise tax from $0.05 to $0.20 per gallon.

• Reduces the taxpayer discount for accurate reporting and timely remittance of alcohol excise taxes from 1.5% to 0.75% of taxes due.

• Establishes the microbrewery market development council and fund, with $0.004 per gallon of beer excise tax allocated to the fund for development and promotion of microbreweries.

• Creates the local economic development fund to distribute alcohol excise taxes to cities and towns based on population, with consolidated cities required to transfer funds to county capital improvement boards.

• Establishes the fetal alcohol syndrome fund for education, research, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment programs, funded by designated alcohol excise taxes.

• Requires the division of mental health and addiction to distribute at least 10% of prior-year addiction services fund revenue for prevention services related to alcohol abuse, drug abuse, or gambling problems.