LODI, Calif. — Weighing down vines across San Joaquin County, grapes are nearly ready for harvest—and ripening alongside them is a debate over a new tax.
Stuart Spencer, director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission, says the proposal to form a “winery business improvement district” would add a 1.5% assessment on sales at area wineries.
“We’re proposing a 1.5% assessment on the sale of wine, so for every $100 of wine purchases, direct by consumers, there would be $1.50 added to that that would go into the organization for doing and promoting our community,” Spencer said. “We’ve spent three years looking at this and doing outreach in our winery community, and kind of tweaked it as we went to make sure it addressed the concerns that were being raised by our vintner community so that everybody felt heard and the program serves the greater good of our community.”…