Well, this shouldn’t really come as a shock to anyone: Along with Missouri and Wyoming, Wisconsin has one of the lowest beer taxes in the country. Whether you find yourself in Stoughton or St. Louis, you can rest assured knowing you’ll only be taxed six cents for every gallon of Miller (or Bud) you purchase. That is a far cry from the two cents you pay in Laramie, but hey, at least our tallest building isn’t a dorm.

Right now, Wisconsin’s place of prestige on the Tax Foundation’s Internet database is being threatened. State Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison, has introduced legislation to raise our state tax on beer. I suppose this is where I, as a college kid, should jump in with some libertarian tirade about my right to drink and, if I paid attention in history, an ominous line or two about taxing liquor and Shay’s Rebellion. But even though I didn’t pay attention in history, I don’t think this is a horrible idea.

Wisconsin clearly loves its beer. We have Miller breweries in Chippewa Falls and Milwaukee and enough microbreweries to drown the Germans (just in case). On the other hand, Wisconsin’s reputation is closely aligned with the kid who always takes one too many beer bongs and passes out after the first quarter, albeit not before puking on your shoes first. “Looking at the measures the way you did, Wisconsin is the worst,” University of Minnesota epidemiology assistant professor Traci Toomey told the Appleton Post Crescent last year when discussing alcohol issues.

So, we should do something about that.

Raising the alcohol tax in any capacity is something our state legislatures haven’t done in the last 40 years. Yet our alcoholism and drunken driving rates have become a national punch line and our DWI laws are softer than Pau Gasol. And millions of additional dollars of tax revenue for alcoholism treatment and prevention would be a godsend for Wisconsin. So a tax increase is certainly warranted.

However, a 500 percent increase is certainly not. It turns out while many recognize our need to deal with alcohol-related issues as a state, Berceau has picked herself an uphill battle by seeking a raise from 6 cents a gallon to a whopping 32 cents. Beyond the problem of people simply not wanting to pay an extra $8 for a keg, those aforementioned breweries (micro and macro alike) are not sailing the smoothest of financial seas right now. It’s highly doubtful that a two- or even threefold hike in taxation would make a dent in beer sales, but it’s hard to see how a fivefold increase won’t.

In the end, this isn’t just a question of Wisconsin’s national pastime. It’s a question of Wisconsin jobs, and judging by the no-holds-barred financial incentives with which the state kept Mercury Marine afloat in Wisconsin, I don’t think the other end of State Street will be looking to tick off any other large employers anytime soon.

Assuming Berceau’s bill passes as is, even more problems will be created as soon as Hudson residents find out the tax is only half as expensive across the St. Croix. The same thing currently happens on the borders of Illinois and Iowa. Wisconsin’s new beer tax of around 32 cents a gallon will be way more than our neighbors’ taxes of 14, 19, and 18.5 cents respectively.

So while on the surface, the proposal has merit, the numbers don’t quite add up. Berceau could save herself a world of trouble by compromising now when she can, rather than later when she has to.

Joe Labuz ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in biomedical engineering.