Contact your local legislators where you live prior to Monday, January 10 to let them know you support A-1293/S-3977 and ask that they “VOTE YES” on the legislation.
The easiest way to identify who to contact and express your support is via the state’s Legislative Website here. Pick your town and it will identify your local legislators in both the Assembly and Senate. Please send the correspondence to all three legislators indicated. Simply state that you support A-1293/S-3977 that is scheduled for a vote during the Senate and Assembly Voting Sessions on Monday, January 10th and that you ask them to “VOTE YES” on the legislation.
The bill, A-1293/S-3977, establishes the “New Jersey Brewery, Cidery, Meadery, and Distillery Industry Advisory Council” and creates a new promotional and research account funded by the taxes paid by manufacturers on the production these locally made craft alcoholic beverages. The bill is similar to programs currently underway in state’s like Pennsylvania, and what New Jersey wineries currently enjoy. The advisory council established in the bill would be comprised of seven members, including two from the state’s craft brewery industry. The advisory council would advise the NJ Division of Travel and Tourism on expenditures from a new account for research, development, and promotion of the New Jersey brewery, cidery, meadery, and distillery industries. The promotion account established in the bill would be credited annually, in an appropriation by law, with an amount equal to 50% of the receipts from the per gallon excise tax imposed on all sales of beer, cider, mead, and liquors sold by New Jersey craft breweries, cideries, meaderies, and distilleries in the state, and any other monies made available to it. Our estimates are that over $300,000 could be dedicated to the account from taxes collected on the production of craft beer in New Jersey alone based on latest available production numbers from the national Brewers Association (BA). This amount, combined with a smaller portion of tax revenue derived from the sale of New Jersey-made cider, mead and spirits, could be a meaningful economic boost to these industries and serve as a reliable source of funding in the future for industry-related research and the promotion of these small businesses which thousands of state residents and out-of-state tourists enjoy on an annual basis.