Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health – Alcohol Tax Research Project

A strong body of evidence supports the use of alcohol taxes as an effective means of reducing underage drinking. The 2003 report by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine recommended that states raise excise taxes on alcohol as one of four key strategies for reducing alcohol consumption by minors. Despite strong evidence of the public health benefits of increasing alcohol taxes, Maryland has not raised the taxes on beer and wine since 1972 and on distilled spirits since 1955.

In 2009, The Abell Foundation awarded a grant to two prominent researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to study the potential health and economic effects of increasing alcohol excise taxes in Maryland. The results of that study were published in a December 2009 report that estimated that a ten-cent-per-drink increase in Maryland’s alcohol excise taxes would reduce alcohol consumption in the state by 4.8 percent, raise $214.4 million in new revenues for the state, and save the state an additional $249 million in costs avoided as a result of reductions in alcohol-related crime and health problems. With a second Abell Foundation grant in 2010, the Hopkins researchers conducted a follow-up study addressing the likely impact on employment in Maryland from an increase in the alcohol tax, and estimating the impact of the proposed tax increase on sales of alcohol within Maryland and neighboring states.