Rosemount Town Pages
April 17, 2009
 
 
The Rosemount City Council just passed its social host ordinance in December, but two individuals have already been charged.
 
Police have ticketed a male minor who hosted a party with alcohol while his parents were away and an adult woman who had minors drinking at her home.
 
In both cases it would have been difficult for police to prove who provided the alcohol to the minors. However the ordinance gave police the power to still charge the offending hosts, said police chief Gary Kalstabakken.
 
"It does help us," said Kalstabakken. "(The ordinance) gives us one more tool to use."
 
The ordinance makes it a criminal offense for a person to knowingly host a gathering or event where underage people are consuming alcohol. With the new ordinance, police won't have to determine who provided the alcohol, just that the host knew that underage drinking was occurring at the home. The two who have been caught hosting underage drinking parties were charged with a misdemeanor. Punishment can include up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
 
In addition to being able to charge the hosts, Kalstabakken said he hopes the word will spread and that the ordinance will help deter underage drinking. At the very least he believes it will make people think twice before hosting an underage drinking party.
 
"I think the word will spread and the parties will be smaller and more controlled," said Kalstabakken.
 
Discouraging underage drinking is why Mothers Against Drunk Driving of Dakota County supports the social host ordinance and presented the city with a certificate during the April 7 city council meeting (See photo). Rosemount is one of four cities in Dakota County that has passed a social host ordinance. The other cities are Apple Valley, Lakeville and South St. Paul.
 
MADD member Jo Baker said the group honored Rosemount for making the effort to deter and educate youth about the dangers of drinking. While MADD focuses on the dangers of drinking and driving, the group recognizes that to stop the act from occurring takes a broad approach.
 
"It's a real honor to recognize a city that steps up to the plate," said Baker.
 
Baker said the ordinance is a "working tool" that will help deter youth drinking and the consequences that can follow.
 
"It's one extra step we have to work with," added Baker.
 

Go to Mark Hedin's (pictured above)White Rabbit Vineyards and Winery in Andover and you can sample a NuVo red, made from Minnesota Marquette grapes. Or you can sip a rhubarb wine, made from Hedin's own crop grown out back between trellises of grapes and a purple-stemmed tangle of raspberry canes.

For the most part, however, to taste Hedin's wines, you'll have to go to the source.

Hedin and other Minnesota farm-vintners have been frustrated in their attempts to get their wines off the farm. A key provision has been removed from a bill in the State Legislature that would have allowed small vintners to hold tastings at commercial locations, such as jewelry stores and art gallery openings.

"We're up against the misconception that wine isn't made in Minnesota, as an industry, and that the wine is bad," said Leon Ohman, owner of Goose Lake Farm and Winery in Elk River.
"We need to have the opportunity to go to these off-site tastings promoting a Minnesota product," Ohman said. "That would help our industry tremendously."

In the House, the bill sponsored by Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Cedar, may be attached to the omnibus liquor bill and could come to a vote in the next few weeks. It still would remove some legal and financial restrictions on wineries producing less than 50,000 gallons a year.

In the Senate, a similar provision, sponsored by Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria, is awaiting a hearing in the Public Safety Committee.

Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association Executive Director Frank Ball has spoken out against the off-site tasting provision, saying his organization, representing alcoholic beverage distributors, opposes any measure that would allow small vintners to operate without the regulations and restrictions that have long governed the rest of the industry.

"The liquor industry is the most highly regulated industry in the United States," he said. "We want to help, but they can't take it out and do things with this alcohol that we can't do."

Ball said he's concerned about youth access and the ramifications of handing out any intoxicating substance, issues traditionally addressed by Minnesota's three-tiered liquor distribution system -- manufacturer-distributor-retailer. Still, he emphasized that his group wants to encourage small wineries, and is willing to work to help market their products.

Hackbarth said he hopes to find a compromise for next session.

Paul Quast, co-owner of Saint Croix Vineyards in Stillwater and president of the Minnesota Farm Winery Association, noted that folks tend to visit his winery -- on the edge of a tourist town -- as a destination. But he said he understands that it's different for visitors to out-of-the-way vineyards, like Hedin's and Ohman's.

"It's like any organization that's growing," he said. "Establishing the legitimacy of what you're doing entails market access, and one of the best ways of getting market access is to have people taste your wine and realize it is good and has market quality."

To Ohman, the issue is about the survival of a purely Minnesota industry. He produces as much as 1,700 gallons and 32 varieties of wine a year. He grows much of his produce right on the farm: nine varieties of grapes, plus strawberries, plums, pears, peaches, apricots, cherries, currants and more.

The farm and winery are his full-time job.

"We're not asking for tax breaks," he said, "but what we'd like to do is promote the industry as a whole, as a viable industry, and not something we're out there playing with."

By PATRICIA LOPEZ, Star Tribune

 

Cigarette taxes would go up by 54 cents a pack, the liquor tax would rise for the first time in 20 years and top income-earners would be subject to one of the highest tax rates in the country under a $1.5 billion tax bill presented by House DFLers.

The bill also would eliminate a slew of tax deductions and close corporate loopholes, adding up altogether to what would be the most dramatic tax changes in a generation, were it to become law.

Defying Gov. Tim Pawlenty's threat to veto any tax hike, the bill marks the start of serious session end-game negotiations among DFLers in the House and Senate and the Republican governor.

 

Senate DFLers also presented their tax proposal -- a $2.2 billion increase that will center largely on returning income taxes to close to their higher 1998 rates and adding a hefty fourth tier aimed at the state's wealthy, but which would leave tax deductions and so-called sin taxes untouched.

The contrast among the three approaches is stark and, set against a backdrop of an economy still gripped by a deep recession, could result in a three-way contest of wills.

"We've got a deficit, so let's have some courage around here and do some bold reform," said House Taxes Committee Chairwoman Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, as she unveiled a bill that left some of her DFL colleagues fuming.

"The choices are not good," acknowledged Lenczewski, whose caucus also has called for spending cuts to attack the state budget deficit. "Cuts hurt people, tax increases hurt people. I don't think anyone has any joy about the situation. This is a reasoned, balanced approach to do both."

 

Brian McClung, spokesman for Pawlenty, had sharp words for the tax proposal. "It's bad enough that Democrats propose giving Minnesota one of the highest income tax rates in the nation and raising taxes on someone having a beer or a glass of wine," he said. "But they really go over the cliff when they propose to increase taxes for child care or for donating an organ. This is Democrats bringing Minnesotans death by a thousand taxes."

The bill would eliminate deductions for child care and expenses related to organ donation.

A far bigger bite is the fourth income tax tier of 9 percent, which would kick in at $300,000 of adjusted gross income for joint filers, $169,700 for single filers and $255,000 for heads of household. Those increases would be retroactive to January. The current top income tax rate is 7.85 percent.

But even the income tax increase would be eclipsed by the real moneymaker in the bill -- a controversial proposal from earlier in the session that would eliminate the popular home mortgage interest deduction. In its stead would be a mortgage-interest tax credit that tops out at $420. Property taxes would no longer be deductible on state income tax.

The alcohol tax would go up three to five cents a drink -- an attempt, Lenczewski said, to recoup the $4.5 billion annual toll that alcohol imposes on the state. According to a state Health Department study, she said, the toll breaks down to $900 per Minnesotan per year -- far more, she said, than what anyone would pay in higher liquor taxes. The cost of cigarettes could soar much more than $6 per pack with the new tax increase, which comes on top of a freshly minted federal cigarette tax hike.

The bill's rocky path through the House was evident in the face of Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, a key player among the state's Iron Range DFLers, who grimaced as he proclaimed himself "not enamored of a lot of this bill."

Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, predicted that elimination of the mortgage interest deduction would be "very, very hard for the public to support," and could erode public support for an overall tax bill.

In addition to income tax increases, Bakk's only other significant revenue raiser is a 30 percent surcharge on banks that charge more than 15 percent interest on credit cards.

Lenczewski said negotiations to achieve a unified House position on major reforms did not come easily. "This is not a pleasant year to be a legislator," she said. "This is a really rough committee. We had people tossing things at each other during committee hearings."

But, she noted, "there is opportunity to think anew, to do something different than just subtracting or adding."

 Click Here For House Tax Bill. "Special Taxes" Begins on Line 151.18 

America's beer industry is made up of brewers, beer importers, beer distributors, brewer suppliers and retailers.  The newest Beer Serves America economic impact study shows that these businesses directly and indirectly contribute more than $198 billion annually to the U.S. economy. 

The study, commissioned by the Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA), also shows that the industry provides nearly 1.9 million jobs - generating nearly $62 billion in wages and benefits. The industry also paid $41 billion in business, personal and consumption taxes in 2008.
 
"America's brewing industry continues to play a pivotal role in supporting this nation's economic viability," said Tom Long, president and chief commercial officer of MillerCoors and chairman of the Beer Institute. 

 

 "Brewers in all 50 states have been a driving force in their communities for years by creating jobs and tax revenue for public services and promoting alcohol awareness responsibility initiatives for retailers, schools, and families."
 
"Beer distributors are proud providers of 95,000 quality jobs with solid wages and great benefits in every state and congressional district across the country," said Phil Terry, chief executive officer of Monarch Beverage Company in Indianapolis, Indiana and chairman of NBWA.

 

"As privately-owned firms, beer distributors are invested in their communities and work hard to ensure the effective state-based system of alcohol regulation, which works to keep communities and consumers safe." 
 
According to the study, the beer industry directly employs more than one million people, paying $28 billion in wages.  Beer sales help support roughly 888,000 retail jobs, and generate more than $25 billion in economic activity in agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
 
"These numbers demonstrate that our industry is essential to several sectors of the U.S. economy, particularly as the nation struggles to regain its footing in this uncertain climate," said Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute. 

 

 "For this reason, it is important that state and federal officials consider equitable tax policies that do not unduly harm an industry that provides so many domestic jobs and so much economic growth."
 
"In addition to providing quality jobs with solid wages, the three-tier beer distribution system provides transparency and accountability and works to keep American consumers safe," added NBWA President Craig Purser.

 

"This time-tested, effective system of state controls, in which America's beer distributors play a critical role, works to ensure alcoholic beverages are sold only to licensed retailers who in turn are responsible for selling only to adults of legal drinking age."
 
The Economic Impact study was conducted by John Dunham & Associates based in New York City and covers data compiled in 2008.  

 

The complete study, including state-by-state and congressional district breakdowns of economic contributions, is available at Beer Serves America, www.BeerServesAmerica.org.