Bourbon spills to protest Ky. tax hike on booze

Bourbon spills to protest Ky. tax hike on booze

www.foxnews.com

"They've always been taxing us to death over the years," said Jimmy Russell, master distiller at Lawrenceburg, Ky.-based Wild Turkey, moments after pouring out an entire bottle of bourbon into a pile of melting snow.

Beer and bourbon trucks circled the Capitol all morning. A few hundred people holding signs and wearing stickers gathered in the Rotunda to shout their opposition.

But lawmakers on the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee weren't swayed. They're staring down a projected $456 million revenue shortfall for the next fiscal year. They approved the tax measure, which includes doubling the state's cigarette tax from 30 to 60 cents a pack.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow, people in Kentucky are willing to sacrifice all of this Bourbon to protest all of these new taxes being shoved onto them. This is bad, and wasteful?

Just a shame, that nobody in power gives a DAMN how we feel, about anything.

It wasn't quite the Boston Tea Party. The proof was a little higher. Kentucky bourbon industry officials stood shoulder-to-shoulder Tuesday and poured spirits on the state Capitol's front steps to protest a proposed 6-percent sales tax on all booze.

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 10-2-2009 by LostNemesis]

That's a waste of good booze; maybe someoen is laying down with their mouth open under this protest?

Haha. In seriousness, I hate "sin taxes" and so I hope they are successful.

Man, I hope they don't hike it up hear in my state. Wild Turkey 101 is my bourbon of choice, and the second thing I reach for when I get home from work. (I kiss my wife first. You can get alway with anything if you remember that.)

I think the amount of money they will raise with these additional taxes won't be as much as predicted. People from border states who live close to Kentucky make the drive to buy cheaper tobacco and alcohol. If the price is no longer an incentive, then Kentucky will see a big drop in business from out of state customers. I used to live in Cincinnati, Ohio and always did my buying of alcohol and tobacco products across the river in Kentucky.

reply to post by kyred


I think that no matter how many news ways they find of taxing us, it will not be enough to fix their problems. In the end, they will not accomplish much more than shoving the US deeper into debt, or collapsing the country altogether, while infuriating the people they are supposed to be representing.

Much respect to the people legally protesting to get their point across.

If enough 'sin taxes' are enacted around the country, I just wonder how many of us will quit, to get the point across.

Or will this just push people to produce their own alcohol? Cigs too? Maybe you cannot stop people from using, but instead push it underground... where people find they can just produce their own for cheaper, considering all the unfair taxes.

I see the handwritting on the wall, It is time to breakout my grandpapy's cookbook and start making my own. I like to see them tax that. (purely for medical use, you know):

Could this be a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party that began our Revolutionary War? That was a protest against taxation without representation. Sound familiar at all?

With all this stuff starting up on Obama's watch, it will IMO take all of his 'messiah powers' to make it all come out right.

reply to post by centurion1211


Hey, I can only hope you are right. Just seems like things are spiraling downward really fast -- in every state. Not the place to say this, but you were lucky to leave California. Not that the same won't be happening elsewhere... But this news article as an example, people are finally starting to get upset.

.....And wasting BOURBON to make a point!

reply to post by LostNemesis


They will tax us all to death before this is all over with. And they will get tax revolts, and massive protests in return. There's not doubt about it.


Off Topic:

That is an awfully cute, and rather hilarious avatar photo.

This wont end good.

The last time this happened George Washington himself ordered federal troops to fire upon Pennsylvanian settlers.

Whenever taxation is concerned you best pay up or be put down.

America, aint she sweet?

NNOOOOOO!

Not my bourbon! Now this really hits home for me, Kentucky Bourbon is all I drink, Wild Turkey 101 in particular.

Tax the smokers...leave the drinkers alone

I want to agree with the poster mentioning how much tobacco/alcohol business in Kentucky comes from out of state. I lived an hour and a half from the border and it isn't uncommon for people to make that trip from there, and I can only assume the amount of people doing it increases exponentially the closer you get to the border.

This is going to backfire for the suits who thought this would be a good idea.

There are more important things to be taxing.

I swear, with what few luxuries the working classes have these days, stepping up taxes on the few simple pleasures of life while the teenage twits of the "well to do" drive luxury cars infuriates me to no end.

And I don't even drink!

Welcome to Kentucky folks.

Our beloved governor would just as soon enact new taxes such as this than seek to make cuts anywhere else.

How about instead of some new taxes we cut back on some of the wasteful spending!!


Don't worry though, we produce TONS of bourbon here in the bluegrass.

We won't run out.