A pair of Colorado’s Democratic lawmakers are reviving a proposal to raise money for addiction prevention, treatment and recovery programs by imposing new fees on alcoholic beverages.

The bill, which is expected to be officially introduced in the Colorado House this week, would apply the fees to beer, wine and spirits manufacturers and wholesale distributors, charging 26 cents per bottle of spirits, 5 cents per bottle of wine and about 3 cents per six-pack of beer. Small breweries would be exempt.

The fees would not kick in until July of 2027. They would be collected by the Colorado Department of Revenue and distributed by an oversight board. The money generated would go towards prevention, treatment and recovery programs, specifically for alcohol-related substance use disorders.

As of 2024, Colorado had some of the highest per-capita alcohol consumption in the U.S., and the 7th highest rate of alcohol-induced deaths, according to data from the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment.

State Rep. Jamie Jackson of Aurora, a sponsor of the bill, said fees on the alcohol industry are a way to create a dedicated, sustainable funding source for key services that face dwindling resources.

“We’re talking about a billion-dollar industry annually, billions of dollars, and I think it’s really time for us to put people over profits,” Jackson said. “At a time where we are cutting our budgets – that’s programs and services that people desperately, desperately need – I want to create pathways for people to just get the help that they need.”

The bill will also be sponsored by State Sen. Judy Amabile of Boulder.

The fees, more specifically called enterprise fees, are not considered taxes under state law because they generate revenue from a specific industry to fund services directly related to that industry – in this case, charging the alcohol industry fees to fund alcohol-related addiction services. In Colorado, any new taxes must be approved by voters under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, while enterprise fees can be implemented simply through legislation.

The revenue generated by an enterprise fee in Colorado is capped at $20 million annually. The bill would create three separate enterprise fees – one for beer, a second for wine and a third for spirits – and the bill’s sponsors hope they could raise up to $60 million dollars per year in total.

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