Legislative/Gambling group talked taxes, more
Pub Date: 10/1/2008
When it convened at 9:30 a.m. Sept 10, chairman Pat Kelly opened the well attended Montana Tavern Association Legislative and Gambling Committee meeting and turned the podium over to MTA Government Affairs Counsel Mark Staples.
The committee met during the annual MTA convention in Great Falls Sept. 8-11.
Staples told the committee that the Department of Revenue rules process regarding brewery tasting room operating hours was going forward as "negotiated rules" and that MTA would monitor it and provide input when appropriate.
Staples also told the committee there is talk that some cities and counties may go to the legislature seeking "local option" sales taxes. Often during the process of implementing such taxes, everyone seeks an exemption to the tax and those left paying it are taverns, restaurants and hotels/motels, he said.
He recounted MTA's historical opposition to selective sales taxes.
"If these were to be allowed, then they need to be only enacted by voters, and specifically what is to be taxed must be included in the ballot question," he said, as well as an incorporated reasonable collection fee. "I don't think the people want to give the authorities those decisions," he said.
tly limited. "The (governments) won't stop raising it and spending it, otherwise. We would need a specific list of what would be taxed and what would not be taxed before we can settle on a position."
Staples said local candidate forums would also help MTA get an idea of what legislators and prospective legislators are thinking on the matter.
The committee deferred adopting a position until its Nov. 12 meeting after the election.
Staples told the group he was contacted by an alcohol retailer association in Wyoming that was considering pursuing a special military exemption to the 21 drinking age.
"It's the old 'if they're old enough to fight and die, they're old enough to drink' appeal," he said. The Wyoming licensees were wondering if there was any support to their north, Staples said.
"I don't see any drive to do this," he said, although some university presidents have said publicly recently they believe the matter of a lower drinking age ought to be discussed, alleging the current limit encourages binge drinking in those under 21. Further, Staples said, it would likely jeopardize Montana's share of the federal highway funding.
One member said, "It won't even come up'; why do we keep talking about it?"
The discussion moved on to the question of new tribal identification cards. A new state law says they must be accepted as bon fide, yet already some operators are reporting seeing counterfeit tribal IDs.
Staples said further clarification would be sought from Department of Revenue representatives who were at the convention, but that if ever an operator has suspicions about the validity of any ID, they are certainly entitled to demand another ID. You may not decline a tribal ID, but you may ask for a state driver's license in addition, he said.
Either way, Staples said, under Montana law, if you check and are shown a false ID your liability ends...if you can prove you checked it. "I would get a little digital camera or scanner or copier and make an image of every ID I check."
Several other items of interest that were discussed at length were subsequently declared "off the record" regarding any press coverage.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, October, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.