AUGUSTA, Maine — The head of Maine’s liquor bureau says bar and restaurant owners who buy large volumes of alcohol in New Hampshire to sell in Maine are costing the state as much as $11 million a year in revenue.
Gerry Reid of the Maine Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations said Monday the state loses an estimated 206,000 to 584,000 cases of liquor sales each year to New Hampshire, which sells alcohol at lower prices and without sales taxes.
Reid says although consumers are allowed to buy small quantities of liquor in New Hampshire for personal use, it’s illegal to buy multiple cases and bring them back into Maine.
Maine Today Media reported that Reid wants to renegotiate the state’s liquor distribution contract, lower prices and hire more enforcement officers.
Drop the price of the Maine Booze at all stores, not just in Kittery.
It is very simple really.
While they are at it take a few lessons from New Hampshire, they seem to know how to run a profitable state.
There are three beggar states in New England. Rhode Island, NH and guess who the third one is? The other three are donor states, all Dem run. Fiscal conservatism, LOL
My younger sister pays over $5000. per year in property taxes while I pay less than $1000. per year. I don’t think I’d like that ! Best bet is to prosecute those businesses that sell the booze illegally. More enforcement is job creation also !
Well then, you certainly are a lucky devil because my property taxes are more in line with your sister’s, and she doesn’t have to pay any sales tax.
I don’t own anything fancy, either nor am I in a large town.
Your $1,000 dollar tax days will be coming to an end if you continue to reside in Maine.
atleast she can calculate the actual amount of taxes she pays..meanwhile you pay income tax, property tax, sales tax…and i bet the total is far more than you expect.
Too bad so sad State of Maine….get with the program and observe what NH does and doesn’t do. It’s not rocket science…although for this state it probably is.
They have the highest property taxes and are a beggar state, are yo kidding?
NH isn’t a begger state – it has a republican majority in the state and the governor is a moderate. Maine has higher unemployment, and more people on welfare.
Are you kidding? There are beggAR states and donor states. If you don’t know the difference, look it up. You really should educate. Three beggar states in New England, RI, NH & ME. Three donor states, MA, CT, VT. Check out who is running each, get a clue. Before you speak you should understand how it works. There is even a map of them, if you neeed a visual. Good grief.
“The current contract generates nearly $23 million a year for the state”Where do they get that figure? I contacted the bureau of alcoholic beverages and asked how much revenue has gone into the general fund in 8 years.”Roughly, $40 million dollars from sales.”To me that is $5 million a year NOT $23 million a year.When the state was in the liquor business they did about $28 million to the general fund A YEAR.The state lost their shirt in the deal but won’t admit it.I worked in the state liquor stores for 22 years.
Check out the same story in the PPH and see where Democratic legislators were complaining about the “sweet heart deal” the Baldacci Administration struck when they privatized the state liquor distribution business. Apparently if you don’t print some of the factors involved it didn’t happen. So if Democratic legislators are complaining about what happened, the Baldacci Administration really screwed it up, although I hear it was purchased by a Democratically friendly business. They tax payers just didn’t benefit as much as we could have.
And of course, if the Baldacci administration had worked out a sweeter deal for the state, Maine Beverage Co. would be back complaining that the deal was restricting their business and LePage would bend over for them. It’s all smoke out of LePage’s a** no matter how you look at it.
Baldy was the one who benefitted from that sale.
I love these fake numbers they pull out of the air…. kinda funny when someone does some research and finds the truth behind the numbers…
That is why when any politician opens their mouth, you need to go check it, there is sure gonna be a lot of air numbers being thrown around from now until Nov.
“it’s illegal to buy multiple cases and bring them back into Maine”
Only illegal if you get caught. (Cigarettes are way cheaper in NH also.)
Yes it is, but you will never see Maine Government taxing liquor like they did for cigarettes because they all drink. I still have yet to see a teenager dead in a car wreck for smoking. Drinking, yes it happens almost every day.
Look up a column – either in the Casco Bay Weekly or the Portland Phoenix – from a few months back about liquor distribution in Maine, NH, and Mass. It’s all handled by the same company.
It’s all from NE distributors but each state has diffferent pouring taxes. The tax stamp is the last thing to go on depending on the state it’s going to.
You can’t blame the bar and restaurant owners for trying to make a profit. It is tough to make a living in Maine.
It is screwing the rest of us by not paying their fair share. If caught, their license should be suspended.
Fair share? That’s assuming that the high taxes are fair to begin with. You could look at it the other way and say that those who pay high taxes are the state’s chumps.
You don’t have to live here , it is a free country after all.
yes..keep it up with the rediculous taxes and no jobs..us young people will keep bailing ship and leave the great state of Maine to the welfare recipients and bitter old codgers too stubborn to admit that the state has been fleecing them of their wealth for generations.
If you think taxes are ridiculous like I do than you’ll demand that your elected officials quit spending money !
Good point. However, it’s a poor attitude to say that if one doesn’t like the way things are then one should leave instead of trying to change things.
I’ve been voting for 44 years , as long as we let politicians make a career out of politics we will not really be in control of our government.
The Prez has term limits yet our Congress won’t vote for term limits for themselves. Maybe we should get rid of term limits for the Prez then? This is BS, these career politicians that have parlayed 174K into millions. They do not represent us, only themselves.
I’m willing it wouldn’t be so tough if being crooked wasn’t an accepted norm.
So you think it is OK to steal from your neighbors just so you can make a buck?
Every time I pay taxes I can feel the welfare class stealing from me.
Selling drinks in a bar is highly profitable who are you kidding?
Obviously you’ve never owned one.
Heck, not only the bars and restaurants almost everyone i know either stops or has a friend stop in the N.H. liquor store when they make a trip past there. It just goes to show you the state of Maine would make more money if they sold cheaper than NH. NH draws sales from all it’s neighboring states. Can you just imagine the amount of sales go to Mass. residents. Maine has got to do more marketing and less passing laws against everything.
Are you kidding? No one checks (surprise) the tax IDs on the bottles on occassion? They are taxed completely different. The PD give out licenses, WHAT??
It’s time Maine GOT OUT OF THE LIQUOR BUSINESS!
They are out of the liquor business. There are no state run liquor stores.
The state is still very much in the liquor business. ” In 2004, the state sold off the distribution part of the business to Maine Beverage Co., which handles the warehousing and delivery of distilled spirits and fortified wines.” Further, the contract for that end of the business was for only 10 years. Good trick to sell something for a limited period of time. What the state sold was a monopolistic license to distribute. As long as there is a state tax sticker affixed to the bottle (or required to be), then the state is in the liquor business.
There is no state tax sticker affixed to the bottle.
http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/attach.php?id=115477&an=2
Looks like the state in in the liquor business to me! They advertise specials monthly!
http://www.mainebeverage.com/index.aspx
this doesn’t make sense to me as Bars/Restaurants do no pay Sales Tax on products they are going to resell as the sales tax it passed onto the customer buying the food and mixed drinks at a higher sales tax.
That’s what I thought,your a retailer buying from a wholesaler you are not the end user and they taxes would be paid at the purchess by the consumer. My guess is the state is just looking for a loop hole to be able to tax they same alcohol twice,because they need another raise.
Either that or LaPage has another relative that needs a job.
are you saying there is no pouring tax in ME?
“Reid says although consumers are allowed to buy small quantities of liquor in New Hampshire for personal use, it’s illegal to buy multiple cases and bring them back into Maine.”
Since the LePage administration apparently isn’t enforcing the law, they want to make sure to blame THAT on the Baldacci administration. If Maine businesses are buying liquor in New Hampshire for resale in Maine, THAT IS A CLEAR VIOLATION OF THE LAW and should be enforced. Lack of enforcement officers is no excuse. At the same time, they love to complain that the Baldacci administration “should have” negotiated a better deal. Of course, if they had, Maine Beverage Company would be complaining to the LePage administration that the deal was “restrciting” business and the LePage administration would be bending over for them. So either way, the current crop of losers is going to put the blame on the previous administration. Just checking my notes, too, isn’t the Republican party the party of PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY Aren’t they, too, the party that wants to PRIVATIZE ALL GOVERNMENT SERVICES AND PROGRAMS? Lastly, aren’t they the ones who claim that Maine government should only do things that the majority of other states are doing (only 19 are in the liquor business in any form-meaning 31 are NOT in the liquor business)? Funny how the TeaPublicans have an excuse, lie, or some other story to cover their incompetence.
“Checking my notes”. Now that’s funny! You been drinking?
If you paid attention to what was going on in the State you would know that we have no actual liquor enforcement officers anymore. They were abolished by the Baldacci administration. We do have liquor inspectors who drive around the State checking for violations at Agency Liquor Stores but thats about it. All other liquor enforcement was turned over to local law enforcement agencies. Most of them don’t have the time or the inclination to inspect their local watering holes for violations. Why would they, you never bite the hand that feeds you. The liquor enforcement officers that were cast into the winds generated a great deal of revenue for the State but no one in the Baldacci administration cared to listen.
Maine needs to take lessons from NH. They do it right. Why can’t we??
That’s the way the market is. Booze, cigarettes, etc. Over tax them and the people will get it elsewhere and then where are you?
Not that there should be extra taxes on any of that stuff anyway.
Exactly right! If I want to go to NH and buy 50 flippin cases of liquor I don’t see it as anyone’s business either.
I thought there was a law against bootlegging alcohol? Avoid paying state taxes in ones home state. What next, untaxed moonshine from the South, hahahahaha sold in Maine Bars ?
New Hampshire is run by a bunch of scumbag drug dealers posing as Christians. They are about as evil as it is possible to be.
What kind of drugs are they dealing?
The state overtaxes and doesn’t like non-violent protests? Tough poop.
The state operates a discount store in Kittery to compete with NH so they are not out of the retail business. BTW this is an insult to the rest of the state.
Glad to see that I am not the only one irritated over that situation……
They do? Where is it located? The only store I knew of in Kittery was closed a few years ago.
Stop stealing so much from these small businesses then they wouldn’t have the incentive to go to NH.
hire more enforcement officers? are we trying to save money here???? just lower your prices!!!
If the state would stop stealing so much from these small businesses they wouldn’t have the incentive to buy in New Hampshire.
This would be nothing more than an enforcement issue in some states. My understanding in some other states was that inspectors would immediately suspend the license if they found even one bottle (even an empty one) on the premises from out of state. If Maine law isn’t that strict, it needs to be revised.
Funny. Gerry Ried complaining about booze crossing state lines. Jerry Reed working with Burt Reynolds on taking beer across state lines. 10-4 Snowman
We as business owners in Maine will do what is required to be profitable=it’s about as simple as that=and by the way-this has been going on for decades.
Then it really is time to stop it, you need to pay taxes in the state you sell it in. My father owned a bar and we never did that, very snakelike.
Does Gerry Reid have any evidence that this has actually occurred? Or is this a story he’s heard from a friend of a friend? Just an excuse to bash business owners.
Yeah – because they don’t want to worry about the bottom line of the small businesses that are trying to save a few dollars.
Sell the liquor at wholesale prices to the bars/restaurants. Give them a chance to mae a buck. The retail sales will never be stopped.