Glorious news from Santa Fe, as House Bill 398, the last remaining piece of legislation aimed at increasing the excise tax on local breweries, wineries, cideries and distilleries, has been tabled in committee. HB398 was squashed by a 5-2 vote in the House Health & Human Services Committee this morning. The bill seemed to stand…
Category: Beer and Government
One bill down, one bill remains at NM State Legislature
Pardon the delay, computers/wireless were down at work for most of the morning. Here is the official statement from the New Mexico Brewers Guild on last night’s committee hearing regarding SB314: SB 314 was finally debated yesterday evening, beginning at 8 p.m., in a hearing that resulted in the bill being tabled by a majority vote…
Big day looms for brewery-related legislation in Santa Fe
The seemingly glacial pace of the state legislature is thawing, with the now-infamous Senate Bill 314 finally getting its hearing today (Monday) before the Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee. The bill is listed second on the docket, though it does not necessarily mean it will be heard in that order. There are eight bills in…
New House bill also seeks to increase excise tax on craft breweries
It appears that the old cliche, monkey see, monkey do, is alive and well at the New Mexico State Legislature. House Bill 398 has been introduced as the mirror version of Senate Bill 314, with both seeking to make serious increases to the excise tax on multiple forms of liquor, including craft beer. This bill…
Battle lines are drawn for SB314 after contentious town hall
The Friday revelation that members of the New Mexico state legislature were pursuing an increase in excise taxes caught many of us by surprise. Senate Bill 314, an updated version of the same legislation proposed by the neo-prohibitionist group Alcohol Taxes Save Lives and Money, was dropped on an unsuspecting public by State Senator Cisco…
New reciprocity bill set for Thursday hearing in Santa Fe
The good folks out at Ale Republic alerted us to the fact that the first notable piece of legislation that affects craft breweries comes up this Thursday in Santa Fe. A new reciprocity bill is due for a vote before the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee, which meets at 1:30 p.m. in Room 309….
La Cumbre’s Erway speaks out against new alcohol tax proposal
The State of New Mexico is at it again. Certain legislators want to raise the taxes on alcohol to help balance the budget. While we would all like to see them actually pull off a balanced budget, this sort of move would be disastrous to our breweries, wineries, and distilleries. La Cumbre owner Jeff Erway…
Beer Notes: Rejoice, all the brewery bills have been signed
Late last night the Crew was informed by the NM Brewers Guild that Governor Susana Martinez has signed all three of the major bills that affect our breweries. Well, that is just one giant relief. After all, we had spent the better part of two weeks singing the praises of these bills and yet none…
SB238 has major implications for Second Street and Turtle Mountain
As many of you know, the legislative session closed several weeks ago, and we ran a rather popular article about it because, despite the session being called a rather “dead session,” our craft beer industry had quite a lively time at the wake. Since then, the Crew has taken to hunting down more information on…
La Cumbre, Nexus and Tractor are all pleased with this year’s legislative session
The potential positive fallout from the New Mexico State Legislature passing multiple bills to help the craft brewing industry continues to be anticipated across Albuquerque. I was recently able to talk to some of the brewery owners to get their take on what those bills, once they are (hopefully) signed by Governor Susanna Martinez, will…
DARK SIDE BREW CREW 