Len Foxwell served as Comptroller Peter Franchot’s chief of staff from 2008 to 2020, and his frontman when it came to his support of the Maryland craft beer revitalization.
Foxwell wrote a commentary for The Baltimore Banner posted on April 28, 2024, Why are Maryland craft beer makers going away?. In that piece, he shared a scathing expose of a hostile Maryland legislature toward the state’s budding craft beer businesses in an effort to favor “big beer” distributors.
During the past decade or so, the Maryland beer industry grew exponentially despite outright hostility from some of our state’s elected lawmakers. Laws and regulations were authored for the benefit of politically wired distributors who are financially incentivized to sell Budweiser and other corporate brands at the expense of local craft beer.
Craft breweries have to navigate local laws from county and city jurisdictions, and an unfavorable business climate which puts Maryland at a disadvantage when competing with neighboring states and simply keeping the lights on.
Craft breweries remain subject to production, distribution and retail sales limits that exist for no other industry. They remain saddled with a 9% alcohol sales tax, which puts every segment of the alcohol sector in Maryland at a prohibitive disadvantage with neighboring states.
Foxwell closes his treatise with a call to action for reform. Doing nothing helps only big beer and will continue to place small craft breweries with an uphill battle. “For the survival of an industry that can mean so much to the Maryland economy, it is an effort that must happen now.”
