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Athens brewery gets Schumer BEER Act nod

Feb 24, 2011 8:36 am
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="198" caption="Crossroads Brewery, in Athens, will benefit if new Schumer-backed BEER act gets passed."][/caption]When he came to Greene County to meet with local business and community leaders on President's Day, February 21, New York's senior U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer listened as representatives of the new Crossroads Brewery in the old Opera House in Athens asked about getting tax help for their struggling business, which has been open since last autumn selling growlers and kegs of its well-received microbrews. Now it seems Schumer was listening, or already had something up his sleeve, because the next day, February 22, he made a special announcement while touring Brown’s Brewing Company in Troy, "nibbling on toasted barley and chatting with employees," as the Troy Record's Katie Nowak reported. “It’s the new economy, right here,” Schumer said, before then announcing his support for bipartisan legislation called the Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act, or BEER Act, which would give small local breweries, like Brown’s and Crossroads, a tax cut, ultimately helping them reinvest in their operations and expand their workforce. Breweries across the country currently pay a $7 excise tax on the first 60,000 barrels they brew annually. The BEER Act would cut that tax in half for breweries which produce fewer than six million barrels per year, to $3.50 per barrel, and would take $2 off the tax on the remaining barrels up to two million, allowing more funds for business development for the ancient trade.