Posted: 6/16/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Keith Srakocic, The Associated Press A stack of posters promote a referendum on the Allegheny County 10 percent tax on poured alcoholic drinks in Pittsburgh on Friday.

PITTSBURGH - A stiff drink comes with a stiff tax in Pittsburgh and surrounding towns these days, and that has made the county executive public enemy No. 1 in some quarters, reviled by name in song and on bar bills.

Even comedians have gotten into the act, complaining that rising drink tabs meant fewer people coming to see them perform and pouring wine and liquor into a river in a mock restaging of the Boston Tea Party.

The 10 percent drink tax, in effect since January, was pushed along by Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato to subsidize public transit. The two-term Democrat says he had no choice; swallow that, he said, or property taxes would have to be hiked.

Many bar and restaurant owners are frothing over the county surcharge, and are making sure that the name of its sponsor is as well-known as, say, Sam Adams and Jim Beam. With rising fuel and food costs and a weak economy, they say, the tax is just one big fly in their beer.

"I've been in this business for 40 years and I've never seen a more difficult or challenging time," says Kevin Joyce, owner of The Carlton restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh.

Michael McDermott, who was nursing a lager at a downtown pizzeria, says he goes out only two nights a week now instead of three - just the kind of response bar owners fear.

"I cannot afford to drink as much as I used to," says McDermott, 49, of Scott Township.

Signs have appeared in bars telling Onorato, only half in jest, that he is not welcome. Some bar receipts contain the notation "Onorato tax." Online, one Irish balladeer croons: "Remember the tax you pay on every single beer and then tell old Danny boy that he's not welcome here."

One restaurateur even challenged Onorato to a charity boxing match, with the tax's future at stake if he lost. Onorato chose instead to tend bar and give his tips to a Police Athletic League.

Now the brew-haha over the tax, which also applies to six-packs sold at bars, is taking a more serious turn.

A petition drive is about to get under way to try to repeal the 10 percent levy. Friends Against Counterproductive Taxation plans to begin collecting signatures Tuesday to put the issue to a referendum in November.

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