>By BRIAN WITTE , 03.29.11, 05:17 PM EDT
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — An increase in Maryland’s alcohol tax advanced in the Maryland Senate on Tuesday, with a significant portion of the first year’s proceeds set aside for Prince George’s County and Baltimore schools.
The Senate measure would raise Maryland’s sales tax on alcohol from 6 percent to 9 percent over three years by 1 percent a year. It would raise about $29 million in fiscal year 2012, $58 million the following year and $85 million in the third year, fiscal analysts estimate.
In the next fiscal year, Baltimore schools would receive about $12 million, and Prince George’s County would receive about $9 million to help boost education funding in Maryland jurisdictions that lagged behind others because of school funding formulas. Proceeds from the alcohol tax would be diverted to those school jurisdictions only in a one-time adjustment.
“These are two of the largest consumers of alcohol in the state and most of the tax revenue is generated from those two jurisdictions, and under the governor’s plan, unfortunately, these two jurisdictions come up short in terms of state aid as contrasted to the rest of the state,” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, D-Calvert, told reporters. “It’s the result of formulas. It’s not anybody’s diabolical plan.”
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