Minnetonka Breweries Fear Alcohol Tax Hike

Lucid, Badger Hill and Bad Weather Brewing warn that an increase in the alcohol tax could slow plans for an expansion to the facility that the three breweries share, according to a Wednesday Star Tribune report.

One budget proposal calls for hiking the alcohol tax from $4.60 per barrel to $27.75 per barrel, although a House proposal would only apply those taxes to breweries producing more than 50,000 barrels per year.

The newspaper quoted Lucid Brewing co-owner Jon Messier as saying:

This bill goes right after the guys that are growing, which is the dumbest thing in the world, in my opinion. … This bill tells me, ‘Don’t grow your business here,’ and I don’t know why you would do that to anyone.

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