The Reporter's Notebook Podcast, Ep. 57: Higher Alcohol Taxes?

The Reporter's Notebook from The Las Cruces Sun-News

This week, we’re talking to Ted Alcorn, a New Mexico native and a freelance journalist who has written for The New York Times, teaches at Columbia University and NYU, and previously worked for the Mayor’s Office in New York City. Ted recently wrote a long series for New Mexico In Depth called “Blind Drunk,” which you may have also read in the Las Cruces Sun-News.
It detailed how alcohol is killing New Mexicans at a higher rate than anywhere else in the country — at a rate that’s about three times higher than the national rate, actually — yet the state has largely neglected the growing crisis. That series recently won an award for Excellence in Reporting from the Association of Health Care Journalists.
House Bill 230 is a proposed tax increase on alcohol. The bill cleared its first committee on Friday, Feb. 10. If passed, it would add a 25-cent tax to every pint of beer, glass of wine or shot of liquor. The bill’s sponsors said increasing the state’s alcohol tax is long overdue.
New Mexico hasn’t raised the alcohol excise tax since 1993 — that’s nearly 30 years. Since then, we have seen inflation strip away the effects of having an alcohol tax to help reduce consumption.
The sponsors said the proposal could decrease total alcohol consumption in New Mexico by 7%.
More than 2,700 New Mexicans died from alcohol last year — more than six people a day – a nearly 50% increase from 2020. That doesn’t include DWI cases and other health impacts.
Despite the lower consumption, the proposed alcohol tax would still generate more than $155 million a year in revenue, according to projections, which could be funneled into prevention and treatment programs long-term.
But… We may not see it pass. On Monday, Feb. 20, the bill was tabled by the House Taxation and Revenue Committee, which voted unanimously to shelve it. This may be a post-mortem on the bill, unless something changes. There’s a chance it could be folded into an omnibus tax bill, according to the bill’s proponents. We’ll talk to Ted about that; he has been following the issue closely.
This week, we're happy to have Ted joining us.