Another Initiative Tries to Tap Into Liquor Taxes

Only two weeks after the scuttling of one liquor tax initiative, New Year’s Eve saw the launching of a new, similar campaign intended to both bolster law enforcement and revive California’s ailing trauma care system.

Standing outside the closed trauma center at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, Supervisors Ed Edelman and Mike Antonovich and Sheriff Sherman Block said Thursday that the Public Safety and Emergency Care Initiative is needed to cope with the “staggering” social cost of drunk driving and alcohol-related crime.

Edelman said surveys have shown that more than 65% of trauma patients were injured in alcohol-related incidents--typically drunk driving wrecks or shooting and stabbings. In Los Angeles County alone, there are 100,000 drunk driving arrests each year, Block said.

Decades Since Last Increases

And yet, the sponsors said, 20 years have passed since the last tax hike on hard liquor and 50 years since the last increase on dry wine. The passage of time, Edelman said, is a measure of the liquor lobby’s strength.

The initiative would create a new schedule of liquor taxes that would raise an estimated $350 million in annual revenues. Of that, 40% (or $140 million) would be disbursed for trauma care and 40% for law enforcement. The remaining 20% would be divided to ease court backlogs, to aid victims of alcohol-related crimes and to bolster alcohol-abuse prevention and treatment programs.

“Our trauma care network in the county and the state is collapsing,” Edelman said. But if the initiative qualifies for the ballot and passes, “there’s no question we can open all seven of the trauma centers that have closed and keep them going. We wouldn’t have a crisis every year.”

The county, which established its trauma network with 23 centers in 1983, has 16 in operation, many of which are struggling.

“The cost is really staggering, in dollars and human misery,” Block said. “This is a user tax. Those persons who are abusers of alcohol will pay the greatest tax.”

‘Small Insurance Premium’

Block likened the tax to “a small insurance premium” for alcohol abusers that will make sure “the trauma centers are available if and when they need that.”

Under the plan, the per-gallon tax on dry wine would go up from 1 cent to 6 cents, on sweet wine from 2 cents to 12 cents, on beer from 4 cents to 18 cents, on sparkling wine from 30 cents to 40 cents, on brandy from $2 to $5 and on hard liquor from $2 to $7.59. In terms of typical purchases, the new tax would be 1 1/5 cents on a fifth of white wine, 10 cents on a six-pack of beer and $1.52 on a fifth of Scotch.

Proponents need 372,178 valid signatures by May 19 to qualify the initiative for the November, 1988, ballot. Edelman said he believes gathering signatures will be tougher than winning voter approval.

Eight months ago, Secretary of State March Fong Eu launched her Dimes Against Crime liquor tax initiative to raise money for law enforcement. The idea arose from a brutal mugging she suffered in her Hancock Park home more than a year ago. But two weeks ago, Eu abandoned her effort, citing lack of money and signatures.

Sponsors of the new campaign are hoping that by adding the trauma care issue, the new initiative will have broad enough appeal to be successful. Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and the state’s paramedic community are among those expected to work for its passage.