Will Easley get his beer & wine tax increase?
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley is proposing a huge hike in beer & wine taxes to fund the state’s ailing mental health system. The North Carolina Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association is not happy. NC already has the fourth-highest beer tax in the country. A new tax would make us number two. See Beerinator.

“Our members oppose the Governor’s proposed tax hike,” said Dean Plunkett, executive director of the NCBWWA. “If passed, Governor Easley’s tax increase would not only put a burden on North Carolina consumers, but give North Carolina one of the highest taxes on beer and wine in the nation.”

The Asheville Citizen-Times weighs in on Easley’s budget plans, too, saying it needs tweaking.

“To pay for the mental health push, the governor would increase taxes on liquor, beer and wine. Taken with the cigarette tax increase, the “sin tax” bumps essentially equal the amount taxes were reduced on the state’s wealthiest residents last year.”

People of Georgia simultaneously scratch their heads in confusion
Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia still doesn’t want Sunday beer sales. Except at the new baseball stadium in Gwinnet County. That’s totally okay with him.

Canada wants American craft beer like really, really bad
Canada’s LCBO is relaxing its rules a bit, letting a few American crafts into the country. The Toronto star reports that the LCBO just added Southern Tier IPA, Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA, Rogue Dead Guy Ale and Anchor Steam Beer.

“U.S. craft beer is probably the most diverse and interesting brewing scene in the world,” beer aficionado Cass Enright said at a recent dinner in Toronto at the Academy of Spherical Arts to celebrate the Ontario launch of Southern Tier Brewing’s India Pale Ale.

Over the past few decades, the U.S. beer scene has exploded. In 1978, there were just 42 breweries across the U.S. In 2007, there were 1,449.”

French company promotes new campaign: Save The Kegs
This is actually pretty interesting. Xterprise has developed a software program to install RFID (radio frequency identifiers) on kegs to track them.

“In the US alone, Xterprise says that around 300,000 kegs are lost annually at a cost of $50m to the country’s beer industry, as rising metal prices make the barrels a valuable resource.”