Shot and a Beer

On our way back from a good new business pitch in Philly - we had a couple of drink coupons to "spend" during the flight. We got off the plane a bit happier and decided to cap it off with a shot of Patron and another beer before heading home.

Location: Pittsburgh Airport - TGI Fridays
Event: Traveling back from a new business pitch
Amount Spent on Alcohol: $34.00
Tax Spent: $3.40
2008 Cumulative Drink Tax: $13.81
PAT Usage: 0

Pens Game. Think about this

I took my 4-year old boy the Pens game last night. The Pens lost and Sidney Crosby was injured - he suffered a high ankle sprain that will keep him out for 5-6 weeks.

Oh... and I had a beer at the game. $7 for a Labatt Blue Lite. Who the heck drinks LaBatt Blue Lite.

Location: Mellon Arena
Event: Pittsburgh Penguins Game
Amount Spent on Alcohol: $7.00
Tax Spent: $0.70
2008 Cumulative Drink Tax: $10.41
PAT Usage: 0

This whole thing got me to thinking. If I spend $7 on a beer at a Pens game... how much tax is generated at sporting events in the city. Let's assume that every person at the Pens game had one beer (now, I know that some people won't drink, but there are a lot of people who have 2-4 beers during the course of a game... so lets average that out to one beer per person). That's 17,500 beers x $7.00 = $122,500 in alcohol sales. And 10% is equal to $12,500 in taxes collected from that one event. Multiply that over the 41 home games at Mellon Arena and you come to $512,500 in tax revenue earned from JUST PENGUIN GAMES. And that's not counting playoffs.

Steelers - same rule applies: 70,000 beers consumed during a game x $7 each x 8 home games = $392,000. NOTE: I think there is a lot more drinking at Steeler games - but we'll leave it at that. Pirates - 25,000 is the average attendance and if each person had a beer x $7 apiece x 82 home games = $1,435,000. Drinking might be lighter at Pirate games - but lets hold true to form just for arguments sake.

OK- if you add it all up - $2,339,500 in tax revenue from just local professional sporting events. Wasn't the original gap in PAT funding about $2mm? If so, why couldn't they just tax something like drinks at sporting events. Wouldn't that pay for the gap. Maybe I'm wrong about the $2mm figure... but a tax on all alcohol poured in the county seems like overkill to me.

But who am I... just a poor sap paying for a pour tax.

mmmmust have beer

Well, I plunked down some cash again...

Location: SoHo on the Northside
Event: Worked until midnight to hit a project deadline - then stopped by SoHo after work for a few beers with the boys
Amount Spent on Alcohol: $24.00
Tax Spent: $2.40
2008 Cumulative Drink Tax: $9.71
PAT Usage: 0

Well, I don't think I'm an alcoholic, but this project will certainly have the side effect of tallying how much I spend while out at the bars. My wife is going to love this. So, when she says in 15 years that we don't have enough money for my kid's college tuition, she'll be able to point back to how much I drank in 2008 as the primary reason. Well, I'm going through with this experiment... no matter what it says... somebody has to tally up the impact Dan Onorato has on their daily lives.

Second Time Out

My second time out in three days. Gosh - I hope this doesn't prove that I'm an alcoholic...

Location: SoHo on the Northside
Event: Worked late and went for a few beers with a couple of co-workers before heading home
Amount Spent on Alcohol: $32.00
Tax Spent: $3.20
2008 Cumulative Drink Tax: $7.31
PAT Usage: 0

Start the tally

Here it is - January 7th, 2008 and the light bulb went off. I’m sitting at Mad Mex and it struck me…

I’m a pretty ordinary guy from Monroeville, Pennsylvania who works in the city of Pittsburgh at an ad agency. I have a wife and two kids (and one more on the way, thank you). To get the standard crap out of the way, when I’m not chasing my kids around the yard, I ski, run, mountain bike, read history & politics, and watch TV. I enjoy cooking, eating out, and spending QT with my friends & family. Pretty normal dude.

And oh, by the way, I drink. Nothing truly crazy. But I enjoy beer and maybe a martini now and then. Honestly… it’s just part of who I am… like the rest of you. I go out on occasion, whether for a family dinner or with my buddies, and when I do, I tend to have a couple drinks. On Steeler Sunday’s… maybe more than couple of drinks. And for work – I have to take clients out– as well as the occasional happy hour with fellow employees.

My point is this… I think I’m a pretty average guy.

Sooo… let’s see what Dan Onorato’s ridiculous and unnecessary drink tax cost me over the next 12 months. If you are from Pittsburgh, you know the drink tax I’m talking about. Then, we can all determine if this is a net gain for people like me… or a net loss. Like I said, I feel that I’m and average suburban Pittsburgh guy with a fairly robust social life and a career that requires client entertainment.

Let’s see what happens when I plunk down the credit card or drop cash at local bars and eateries over the next year. Then, you can determine how my lifestyle compares to yours… and it might be possible for each Pittsburgher to see what this tax actually costs them. My guess… if you are young (or relatively young), have any social and/or professional life, you will see that this tax rips hundreds of dollars out of your pocket during the course of the year.

The ground rules are simple – I’m only going to tally my expenditures (what comes out of my pocket) for alcohol bought at bars & restaurants in order to determine the 10% drink tax that has been added to my life. I will subtract out food – so we are only talking about booze. Note – that will include both personal and business expenses. I will not keep track of what other people spend when they buy me drinks – just the receipts I sign for and/or the cash that I drop. That’s it.

At the end of the year, I would ask two things (1) how much has the drink tax cost me and people like me, and (2) is it worth it. You can make the call. Then, you can determine if you want to vote out of office the jerks that decided to impliment such a system.

Sooo… let’s start. It’s January 7th and I bought my first drinks at a bar. I had a couple beers at home up to this point and enjoyed a good buzz while attending a Steeler party on Saturday – but these are the first drinks I bought at an establishment outside of the home.

Location: Mad Mex (Monroeville)
Event: My buddy Quinn is in from Denver – I only see him a couple times of year. It’s only the two of us. We hang out and watch the BCS championship. LSU wins. Yawn.
Amount Spent on Alcohol: $41.15
Tax Spent: $4.11
2008 Cumulative Drink Tax: $4.11
PAT Usage: 0