On Thursday, Feb. 1, the Task Force on Alcohol Pricing and Addiction Services will hold its second meeting, which is open to the public and will be live streamed. On the agenda, Oregon Health Authority official, Dean Sidelinger, is scheduled to present less than a week after investigative news revealed his agency withheld a publicly funded report from 2021 which found raising alcohol taxes doesn’t reduce excessive drinking, contrary to what OHA has been saying for three years.
The buried report found if Oregon raised beer and cider taxes by 2,444% and wine taxes by 664% – numbers similar to task force Chair, Rep. Tawna Sanchez’s 2021 bill HB 3296 – it would maybe decrease consumption by 2% for problem drinkers, but when accounting for problem drinkers switching to cheaper spirits or other substances, which the report determined likely, that reduction might not even be 1%. That’s because, “evidence does not clearly support the idea that higher prices will lead to a meaningful reduction in alcohol consumption.”
The task force was formed when the state legislature passed HB 3610 last year – more than a year after the report was finalized and provided to OHA – creating a 20-member task force to examine increasing taxes on Oregon’s breweries, cideries and wineries. The 20-seat task force only has six seats for representatives of the beer, wine and cider sectors, while the rest are taken by the Oregon Health Authority and addiction recovery and prevention providers, recipients of alcohol tax revenue.
Representatives from Oregon beer, wine and cider are coming to the table and participating because they want to ensure the work of the task force is based on accurate data reflecting the true state of the industry and facts. The recent revelation OHA let bias untruths cloud its judgement make this work even more important.
While the report states alcohol costs Oregon $4.8 billion a year, beer, wine, cider and spirits contribute $17 billion to the state’s economy. Alcohol is the state’s third largest source of revenue and yet only 3% of those taxes go to mental health and addiction services. Over the past couple years, the state has increased spending on addiction by $1 billion without results from OHA and providers.
The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) was charged with organizing and staffing the task force. The task force is supposed to report findings to the state legislature in September 2024.
WHAT: HB 3610 Task Force on Alcohol Pricing, Addiction and Prevention Services Meeting
WHEN: Thursday, February 1, 2024, 3 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE: Oregon Liquor & Cannabis Commission, 9079 SE McLoughlin Blvd., Portland, OR 97222
LIVE STREAM: Microsoft Teams, Meeting ID: 291 059 411 888, Passcode: 5tkAdf
WHO: Members of the HB 3610 Task Force on Alcohol Pricing, Addiction and Prevention Services:
- Senator Janeen Sollman, (D) Senate District 15
- Senator Tim Knopp, (R) Senate District 27
- Representative Tawna Sanchez, (D) House District 43
- Representative E. Werner Reschke, (R) House District 55
- Craig Prins, OLCC Executive Director
- Jamie Floyd, Founder, Ninkasi Brewing Co.
- Marcus Reed, Widmer Brewing
- Fawn Barrie, Executive Director, Oregon Wine Council
- Jana McKamey, Executive Director, Oregon Winegrowers Association
- Aaron Sarnoff-Wood, Co-Founder, 2 Towns Ciderhouse
- Jason Renaud, Board Secretary, Mental Health Association of Portland
- Todd Jeter, LCSW, CADC III (Director of Behavioral Health | Interim Director SDoH-E & Transformation Samaritan Health Plans – Inter Community Health
- Dr. Tom Jeanne, Deputy State Health Officer/Epidemiologist at Oregon Health Authority
- Annaliese Dolph, Executive Director, Alcohol Drugs and Policy Commission
- Danelle Romain, Association Executive Director, Oregon Beer & Wine Distributors
- Sarah Lochner, Executive Director, Oregon Coalition of Local Health Officials
- Robb Corbett, City Manager of Pendleton
- Sean Kolmer, MPH, EVP, External Affairs, Oregon Association of Hospitals & Health Systems (OAHHS)
- Solara Salazar, Executive Director, Cielo Treatment Center
- Doug Barrett, Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw
About the Oregon Beverage Alliance
The Oregon Beverage Alliance is made up of local brewers, winemakers, cidermakers, distillers and their supply and hospitality partners creating hundreds of thousands of jobs generating $17 billion for the state. Learn more: www.DontTaxMyDrink.org
Terry Bunch
