The Allegheny County Alcoholic Beverage Tax is a county tax on retail sale of alcoholic beverages within

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Allegheny County () is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's second-most populous county, following Philadelphia Co ...

. The tax, a 10% levy on served alcohol, was passed by the Allegheny County Council and signed into law by Dan Onorato, Allegheny County's Chief Executive on December 4, 2007. On January 1, 2009, the tax rate was reduced to 7%. The tax is collected at the

point of sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...

by restaurants and bars and is collected by Allegheny County Treasurer on a monthly basis. The funds were dedicated to fund the

Port Authority of Allegheny County Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT, formerly Port Authority of Allegheny County) is the second-largest public transit agency in Pennsylvania and the 20th-largest in the United States. The state-funded agency is based in Pittsburgh and is oversee ...

. The tax encountered significant resistance and spawned an organized advocacy group called Friends Against Counter-Productive Taxation (FACT). The organization was able to have a referendum placed on the ballot to lower the drink tax, but it was overturned by the

Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Ju ...

. In 2009, Pittsburgh Mayor

Luke Ravenstahl Luke Robert Ravenstahl (born February 6, 1980) is an American politician who served as the 59th Mayor of Pittsburgh from 2006 until 2014. A Democrat, he became the youngest mayor in Pittsburgh's history in September 2006 at the age of 26. He wa ...

expressed a desire to acquire a portion of this tax for the city's failing pension system, a possibility that Allegheny County officials opposed, citing that the state law authorizing the tax required the money to be directed towards the Port Authority of Allegheny County.

References

External links

Friends Against Counter-Productive Taxation
Government of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Taxation in Pennsylvania Alcohol law in the United States Local taxation in the United States {{Pittsburgh-stub