{"id":95569,"date":"2019-02-15T13:46:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T20:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-senators-partner-to-support-craft-breweries-distilleries-and-wineries\/"},"modified":"2019-02-15T13:46:05","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T20:46:05","slug":"colorado-senators-partner-to-support-craft-breweries-distilleries-and-wineries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-senators-partner-to-support-craft-breweries-distilleries-and-wineries\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado senators partner to support craft breweries, distilleries and wineries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kristofer
Kristofer Pleszewicz climbs down a ladder against a 240-barrel fermenter at Ska Brewing Co. in Bodo Industrial Park. Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner introduced legislation to try to make permanent a tax cut for craft breweries, distilleries and wineries.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner have introduced legislation to provide a permanent tax reduction for America\u2019s craft breweries, distilleries and wineries, a rare example of bipartisanship in today\u2019s divided Senate.<\/p>\n

Under the bill, small, domestic breweries would be eligible for a tax rate of $3.50 per barrel of beer, about 31 gallons, a decrease of 50 percent compared with the $7 per barrel rate of 2017.<\/p>\n

Craft beverages have become a powerhouse industry in the past few years. The craft brewing industry contributed $76.2 billion to the U.S. economy and more than 500,000 jobs in 2017, according to a study by the Brewers Association. In Colorado alone, the state\u2019s 350 independent breweries employed more than 20,000 people, Gardner said.<\/p>\n

\"Bennet\"
Bennet<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cFostering economic opportunity for beverage producers in Colorado not only strengthens our small businesses, but also has far-reaching effects for their employees and the communities they serve,\u201d Bennet said in news release.<\/p>\n

The bill would replace temporary provisions enacted in late 2017 that are set to expire at the end of 2019. Establishing permanent tax reform will lift a cloud of uncertainty from smaller breweries, said Andres Gil Zaldana, executive director of the Colorado Brewers Guild.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, independent breweries would \u201chave to fight to renew every few years, and that doesn\u2019t do anything to help anyone in planning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The tax reduction came at a time when competition among breweries increased and profit margins began to shrink, according to many Colorado breweries. \u201cMaking this permanent is the right thing at the right time,\u201d Zaldana said.<\/p>\n

Dave Thibodeau, co-founder and president of Ska Brewing Co., said the temporary tax reductions arrived when the 24-year-old brewery was struggling to compete with the influx of new craft companies.<\/p>\n

\"Thibodeau\"
Thibodeau<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re still growing as an industry so it\u2019s just getting harder and harder,\u201d Thibodeau said. \u201cIt just takes more resources to sell a barrel of beer now than it did five years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the permanent reauthorization of the tax reform would allow Ska to focus more resources on selling beer, including hiring new employees. \u201cThere\u2019s two to three more jobs in 2018 than what we would have without that reform,\u201d Thibodeau said.<\/p>\n

Ska Brewing isn\u2019t alone. Other Durango and Cortez craft beverage companies have reported an increased flexibility in product creation and the ability to hire new employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to hire a few positions that I felt were sorely missing, a little bit higher-wage positions,\u201d said Bill Graham of Peach Street Distillers in Palisade. Opened in 2005 by Thibodeau and Graham, the distillery was already well-established before the tax reduction was introduced in 2017.<\/p>\n

But last year, the company had the funds to hire a national sales manager where previously, \u201cwe couldn\u2019t approach the salary to hire that type of person,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n

As one of the oldest craft distilleries in Colorado, Peach Street did not need the flexibility to create new spirit formulas. \u201c(But) for another distiller that is younger, it would be a way to open the door,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n

Smaller microbreweries, like WildEdge Brewing Collective in Cortez, have not necessarily felt the same economic benefits from the tax reform.<\/p>\n

WildEdge opened in mid-2017 with just two full-time and three part-time staff. While they\u2019ve almost doubled in size since then, Tucker Robinson, owner and brewer, is not convinced \u201cthe federal excise tax was the primary motivator in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson said WildEdge\u2019s output is not necessarily high enough to accumulate measurable savings in the past two years. The brewery produced 250 barrels in 2018 and plans to brew 300 barrels this year.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s craft brewing industry had the highest economic impact per capita out of any state\u2019s brewing industry in 2017, about $764 per Coloradan 21 years and older, according to a Brewers Association report. The report combined the total money spent at breweries, wholesalers and retailers and the jobs the craft businesses provided. With such a large economic impact, Colorado\u2019s senators remain invested in the continued growth of the industry.<\/p>\n

\"Gardner\"
Gardner<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cPassing this bill will help small brewers and distillers to grow, create jobs and boost communities across the four corners of Colorado and throughout our country,\u201d Gardner said in a statement Feb. 6.<\/p>\n

With such clear-cut economic benefits, Durango and Cortez brewers remain optimistic that the permanent tax reform bill will pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s totally bipartisan, there\u2019s no politics to it. It\u2019s good for everyone,\u201d Thibodeau said.<\/p>\n

Liz Weber is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reduced tax rate would become permanent, helping small beverage producers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,2608,24,25],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-ska-brewing-co","tag-u-s-sen-cory-gardner","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95569"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}