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Bullitt County Leader Wants to Keep Controversial Bourbon Tax

Bullitt County Leader Wants to Keep Controversial Bourbon Tax

A leader in Bullitt County, one of Kentucky's top bourbon producers, wants the state to keep its controversial bourbon tax, which the distillery industry is pushing to axe.

A report out of Louisville shared details about comments made by Jerry Summers, Bullitt County judge-elect:

"I firmly believe this would be an undue burden on my 85,000 residents in my community to have to subsidize an industry that is doing so well."

Summers spoke Thursday during a meeting of the Kentucky legislature's Bourbon Barrel Taxation Task Force, a committee examining the industry's desire to do away with or dilute the tax, which it calls unfair and uncompetitive.

Bullitt County is home to numerous stops on the famous Kentucky Bourbon Trail, including Jim Beam and Four Roses. 

Annually, bourbon distilleries -- including other famous names like Woodford, Ezra Brooks, Wild Turkey, and Maker's Mark -- pay over $33 million in bourbon barrel taxes. According to information from Kentucky Distillers' Association, the majority of the funds go to support local entities like public school districts, county and city maintenance, and fire departments. 

Per the aforementioned WDRB article:

The industry is in the middle of a $5.2 billion boom in investments including new and expanded distilleries and rickhouses to hold aging barrels. There were 10.3 million aging barrels of bourbon in the state last year, up from 4.6 million in 2009, according to the distillers association.

The outlet also shared comments from state Senator Chris McDaniel (R), who chairs the Senate budget committee. During a recent hearing he said that it has become clear the bourbon industry's desire for tax relief is a major conflict of interest with local governments.

The Northern Kentucky-based lawmaker shared, "The counties are very worried and rightly so...This is this is a fight that's been picked. We can try to avoid that elephant in the room, but the fact is, that's what it is."

Bourbon is core to Kentucky culture, with over 120,000 mint juleps consumed at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby weekend alone.

What do you think about the potential lifting of the bourbon barrel tax?

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Rebekah Barton

Rebekah Barton

Rebekah's search engine optimization career began completely by accident as a college student. Over the course of her career so far, she has "grown up" with the SEO industry, from writing content while juggling classes to managing her own teams of writers and overseeing SEO strategy in subsequent roles. She is excited to bring her passion for high-quality content to CountingWorks, Inc.

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