Could an Alcohol Tax Help California's Bottom Line?
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Strapped for money like many states, Maryland today hiked the sales tax on alcohol by 50 percent to pay for schools. Illinois and Washington have recently raised alcohol taxes. California is hard up for money too, but the last year alcohol taxes were raised in Sacramento was 1991. An industry watchdog says maybe that’s because of $5 million in political contributions to lawmakers and initiative campaigns. Also, the ShakeAlert system that warns of earthquakes. We talk to a man who has one. On our rebroadcast of today’s To the Point, the pipeline that divides America — in more ways than one.
Banner image: A customer shops for beer at the City Beer Store in San Francisco, California. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Making News
Jerry Brown Puts Pen to Paper ()
Governor Brown has until Sunday night to sign or veto dozens of bills passed by the Assembly and Senate. David Siders is keeping track for the Sacramento Bee.
Guests:
- David Siders: Sacramento Bee
Links:
Main Topic
State Finances and Taxes on Alcohol ()
It's harder than ever to raise taxes in the midst of a recession. Around the country, states are beginning to increase levies on alcohol. How long has it been since California increased alcohol taxes? Alcohol Justice has just published a study called "Drunk with Power: Industry Kills Alcohol Mitigation Fees in California 2010."
Guests:
- Bruce Lee Livingston: Alcohol Justice
- Kim Severson: New York Times
Links:
Reporter's Notebook
An Earthquake Early Warning System for California? ()
All Californians know they're vulnerable to the Big One, but we're way behind Japan —even Mexico — in developing an alert system. But 30 scientists, working on a shoestring budget, are developing ShakeAlert at the US Geological Service, Cal Tech and the University of California, Berkeley. Richard Allen directs UC Berkeley's Seismological Laboratory.
Guests:
- Richard Allen: University of California Berkeley
Links:
Main Topic
Keystone Pipeline Dividing America in More Ways than One ()
Hillary Clinton's State Department is faced with a decision that has both political parties fighting among themselves over jobs, greenhouse gases, drinking water and energy security. The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline would bring bitumen — a tarry form of oil -- 1700 miles from Canada into Montana and all the way south to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Public hearings have exposed what one reporter calls "an emotional fault line down the middle of the conservative heartland."
Guests:
- Kim Murphy: Los Angeles Times, @kimmurphy
- Susan Casey-Lefkowitz: Natural Resources Defense Council
- Matt Letourneau: US Chamber of Commerce
- Graham Christensen: Nebraska Farmers Union
Links:
- State Department's final environmental impact statement on the Keystone Pipeline
- Suncor Energy
- Cornell Global Labor Institute on the Keystone project and jobs
- McKibben's Los Angeles Times op-ed on the pipeline
- Murphy on political, environmental divide over the pipeline
- NRDC on Keystone XL Pipeline
- Energy Institute's Partnership to Fuel America on the pipeline
Underwriters
Which Way L.A.? is made possible in part by the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports study and research into policy issues of the Los Angeles region.
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