Man Protests Tax By Dumping Kegs Of Beer Into Lake
SALT LAKE CITY -- Call it the Great Salt Lake Beer Party
Claiming he was a prime target of the beer tax bill that mostly Mormon state lawmakers passed last month, brewer Greg Schirf says he will assert his free-speech rights by pouring the first kegs of his new 1st Amendment Lager into Great Salt Lake.
On Thursday, Schirf says he'll dress up as founding father and notorious tippler Ben Franklin, and, in an updated version of the Boston Tea Party, protest taxation without representation.
"We're a brewery with a political agenda," Schirf said Friday. "We have a political statement to make, but we want to do it with a smile on our face."
The Wasatch Brewery owner and managing partner of the Utah Brewers Cooperative hopes tax bill sponsor Sen. Mike Waddoups will be listening.
Offended by Wasatch Brewery's billboard showing busty beer icon Provo Girl next to the caption, "Nice Cans," Waddoups promised to cite its "bad taste" during the bill debate.
"Our First Amendment rights were impacted because (he) told us to shut up or (he'd) come after us, and (he) did," Schirf said.
With the tax now $12.80 per barrel, Utah suds are among the most expensive in the nation. That's fine with Waddoups, who said Friday his main reason for the tax hike proposal was to continue funding the state's anti-drunk driving measures.
The Republican acknowledged Schirf's billboard was part of the equation. "I personally was more offended by that particular company than the whole industry," Waddoups said.
