New Yorkers are about to get soaked when they want to raise a pint.
Two crucial state tax exemptions that had helped small craft brewers from Coney Island to the Catskills save thousands of dollars a year have been declared unconstitutional by a state court — effectively raising the cost of your next beer by at least a buck.
“It sucks,’’ said Janelle Best, 35, a bartender at Teddy’s Bar and Grill on Berry Street in Brooklyn.
“People come here to drink the local beer — the [Brooklyn] brewery is right around the corner, so we get a lot of spillover. It’s outrageous to put this tax increase on local businesses,” Best said.
The hefty hike was the result of a lawsuit by Belchertown, Mass.-based importer Shelton Brothers.
The bitter Beantown beer biz — claiming unfair competition — had complained it wasn’t right that New York brewers paid lower taxes than out-of-staters. The court agreed.
Starting immediately, in-state beer makers must now pay an additional 14 cents for every gallon they sell in New York — and 12 cents more for every gallon sold in the city.
“The ruling is going to cost us an extra half-million dollars a year,” griped Steve Hindy, owner of the renowned Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg.
Tom Keegan of the smaller Keegan Ales in Kingston, NY, lamented a roughly $50,000-a-year increase.
“Doing business in New York state is hard enough. This makes me want to take my brewery and move to New Jersey or Vermont,” Keegan said.
Of course, New York brewers, distributors, bars and retailers said they’ll jack up their prices to cope with the hike.
The wholesale cost of a case of local beer will rise at least 48 cents, and kegs will jump around $3.50, they said.
It wasn’t clear how much more consumers will pay, but industry workers predicted that the cost of a local beer will rise at least $1 for every pint.
The price jump had beer lovers crying in their mugs.
“New York is always taxing something, but in this economy, small business shouldn’t be screwed over,” said Anthony Diaz, 28, a box-office manager from Manhattan who was swilling drafts at Teddy’s.
But in an e-mail, Shelton Brothers defended the ruling, snipping, “It’s just too damn bad that instead of lobbying to change the state law, they’re wasting time being furious at us when all we did was point out that we were getting screwed.”