To be successful, everyone has to buy a lot of alcohol.

Before long, it is very possible they too will be in jail or prison.

The down side other than that is that Payette County will run over here and make our lives a nightmare.

Overall a great idea. I hope it hits Butch's desk!

Taxing alcohol even more than it is being taxed now will only encourage bootlegging and other black-market options. Remember prohibition? That worked so well to only create criminals. I agree there is way to much drunk driving and there is a distinct problem. But before you tax alcohol, I ask, as one comedian did, why do bars have parking lots? I think a better option would be to require people to purchase travel passes for cab companies and part of those proceeds going into public projects. It increases jobs and helps to eliminate the problem.

Coming from someone that drinks this would be just an increase in money that I would have to pay for my alcohol. Then all the restaurants and bars will up their prices too. Also I've been a bartender and most of us really don't care how much we sell to an individual. It's the person that is drinking to decide whether to drive under the influence or not; not the bartender or server. It's ridiculous that servers and bartenders can be held partially responsible for someone else's wrong doing.

in Payette County.

They'd all just stay home and watch Mystery Science Theater.

Problem solved.

Usually alcohol consumption goes up during a recession, and we are in a recession. However, it never works to attempt to fund something with an expectation of tax money. Very possibly if you tax alcohol that high, people will go out of state to purchase their alcohol, and bars could end up loosing their revenues. You know if the state were to get out of the alcohol business, and allow privately owned liquor stores, which means price competition, they probably would see an increase in tax revenues. I sure buy a lot less alcohol, (and I don't really go to bars) because it's such a pain in the butt to go to one of the state owned stores. I'm more likely to buy a bottle of something in the grocery store, especially if it's on sale.

As for you Bob, it is a good thing that not all bartenders are as irresponsible as you. Do you really think someone that is already inebriated is capable of taking "personal responsibility?"

I think I see a small flaw in your , "they will go out of state to buy alcohol" . How are you going to get out of state ?
Think about it .
You would have to buy a pickup load to break even with the price of gas .
Cheers !

Reddog

It's all the high-priced CHEESEBALLS I think.

Par for the course and I don't golf.

...they also tax diapers, strollers and baby food to help cover the costs of EVERYTHING. I think that a 5000% rate would be a start. It wouldn't get close to covering it but it's a start.

my god, they've invented a new political party, the like of which we may never recover.

Is taxing alcohol the answer to more money for roads & prisons? Maybe not but taxes are going to pay for them & since the prisons & roads are loaded with drunk drivers I would find a way to tax the people making money from the sale of booze instead of people who don't.

Bring ideas & who knows, maybe we'll have some money left to live & support the economy, after taxes eat up 50% or more of gross income.

I don't know about the crap wrappers, people would just quit feeding the kids.

Lower the taxes rather than increase them. If someone does a DWI then revoke their license, put a GPS on them (that also checks blood alcohol levels?), order them into treatment (at their expense), then picking up garbage on the side of the road during their non-work times. That's all far less expensive then jail time or further accidents.

Why are there so many bars in that little space in downtown Boise? There's got to be at least ten within two city blocks (I've counted them). Maybe that has something to do with the amount of DUI's? Perhaps we should unite and get half the bars to close, so the drunkards either walk everywhere or take cabs.....oh yea and maybe get rid of the public parking garages. Just my 5 cents here (adjusted for inflation! :) )

Jacob's Well, V-Twin, Joe's Club, TKO/Roadrunner burned down, Sands' Bar changed owners and the name, one just opened near by, Sundance Saloon, El California (sic--dance club)

Still more bars than open churches (two buildings formerly used as places of worship are a museum and some kind of home or center)...

Dianne Hunt wrote an interesting editorial. I like the part about the $$$, who gave, who received, & who is promoting the business of prison. There was also an interesting editorial by Bob {SR} & Lori Heindel. Death penalty, in response to an editorial by Val Rivers. Maybe Gov Otter who has been taking money, {$30K} from Corrections Corporation of America & now promting prisons should take school kids on a prison tour once a month?

Funny how much $ contibutors can come up with when they know they will get it back several times over. So what if other wise regular people with drug & alcohol addiction go to jail at our expense, {$55 a day.} Just the ones who were caught, the rest are productive members of society?

This is why I suggested taxing alcohol in the first place, pay for prisons. It's a little like the debate on fuel prices. Some people who have made fortunes on fuel suggest that raising fuel prices is the answer to our petroleum addiction. The same could be true in other areas of our lives. Alcohol, if it cost more people would either go broke drinking or drink less while more of the money goes to prisons. Keep more people out of prison by lighter sentences as Dianne Hunt suggest, like other states do.

Government promotes drinking & makes money on it in taxes so why would would we as the government of the people lock so many up for so long for doing their part in supporting the economy as government suggest we should while we profit? A catch 22? Spend your $ on booze, support the economy, generate taxes, get arrested, pay fines, & we'll pay to jail you for years at $55 a day & take you out of productive society & lose the $ you pay in taxes to compound the problem. Obviously our representatives have put a lot of though into this, or just taken the $ to the bank, the golf course, or the governor's office.

You have to realize it's just a small percentage who get caught on any given day. Like the casino it will eventually get most but on each day the police may arrest 10%, 20% or what ever percentage of people driving over the .08 limit. As Connemara mentioned in I have a question, Why are there so many bars in that little space? If that doesn't suggest that far more than the handful being arrested for DUI everyday & night isn't a true reflection of how many are actually driving over the limit, I don't know what would be.

Tax the people who are making the money. The same people who contribute to our representatives, pay lobbyist, & buy million $ commercials, then get tax cuts & incentives which individual taxpayers absorb. Somebody has to pay taxes they evade through campaign contributions & I would have to believe that is why corporations which used to pay 50% of income taxes now pay 10% & individuals pay the rest.

Look at the numbers, they can afford TV commercials, lobbyists, & campaign contributions, they get tax cuts/incentives, & still make billions of $ while we can't afford prisons so schools & health crae do without?. Individuals, some who don't drink pay representatives, their health care, retirement which we lose more of everyday, prisons, police, insurance, courts, high property teaxes, not to mention funerals, 17,600 a year. These same representatives promote illegal immigration, have for year & have destroyed our helth care system as a favor in return for campaign contributions.

There are a few editorials in today's paper, everyday, which lead me to believe people are not satisfied with our government's performance. BSali sent out his little ballot suggeting 11% of Americans approve of Congress, & he's one of them. Other figures suggest 8% & 14%. Bush has a 25% approval rating & America is in a frency over who to vote into the White House, candidates all of who are included in the poor approval percentages through their representation which they are NOT doing while on the campaign trail. They are collecting millions of $ which I have also suggested is ours because they work for US & they are on our time card as they collect this money which they will give away in our taxes in cuts & incentives mulitple times over when elected.

Tax cuts we will absorb! Voting in a president, one of the clowns responsible for the mess we're in {RECESSION & WAR with a $9 TRILLION DEBT}after giving the same clowns an approval of 14% or less isn't the brightest move we could make.

I doubt any of the corporations buying our representation through campaign finance would hire a CEO based on the same performance, except Micron.

I tend to gut them for parts. I had an eMachines eTower at 500 MHz or so that actually had a decent enough bus and cache to handle You Tube really well!

Might as well tax weed too