State College bar patrons are shaken and stirred by a State College Borough Council proposal that would levy a 10 percent tax on poured alcoholic drinks at local bars and restaurants.
Exiting Bill Pickle's Tap Room, 106 S. Allen St., after a celebratory end-of-semester meal with friends, Kyle MacWade (senior-mathematics) said the proposal would just encourage students to buy from bottle shops.
"It's ridiculous," MacWade said. "Unless they're doing it for a good reason, like saving the lives of kids with cancer."
Council President Elizabeth Goreham said Monday that the measure would allow the cash-strapped borough to receive revenue from its student residents, who usually do not pay property taxes in State College.
Regardless of the measure's economic impact on the borough, David Scott (senior-health policy and administration) said he doesn't think the tax is a good idea.
"It will be an effective way to raise money for the government, but they shouldn't do it," he said. "We are taxed everywhere already."
Because it would not affect liquor stores and bottle shops, the proposed tax will not change State College's drinking culture, Kellie Young (senior-health policy and administration) said.
"It's not the right way to go about it," she said. "They are still going to drink."
Pittsburgh native Brendan Hunt (junior-psychology) said the 7 percent tax on poured alcoholic drinks currently enforced in Allegheny County has not affected him.
"It affects the bars," he said. "And I go to the bottle shops."
But some students said the 10 percent that could be tacked on to their tab would make going to State College bars too costly.
"I'm not going to be able to go out anymore," Sara Ziegler (junior-life sciences) said. "That's going to get expensive."
