State Tax Revenue From Alcohol Sales Could Be Up 17%

State excise tax revenues from the sale of alcoholic beverages are projected to rise nearly 17 percent in the 2021 fiscal year that ended June 30. Mark Somerhauser with the Wisconsin Policy Forum says that amounts to about ten million dollars in additional revenue.

“It’s certainly not anything that’s going to a game changer for the state budget. One reason why the budget impact is so minimal is because we have a made a policy choice here in Wisconsin to tax alcohol at a very low rate compared to most other states.”

Somerhauser says the increase tax revenue is pretty clearly linked to increased alcohol consumption during the pandemic.