MATTHEW TULLY

Tully: Pondering a Senate run, Todd Young talks whiskey

Matthew Tully
Renowned still-maker Vendome specially made this hand-crafted copper still for Bear Wallow Distillery, 4484 E. Old State Road 46, Nashville, Indiana's first retail distillery.

Before I get to the subject of today's column, I should probably get this out of the way: Rep. Todd Young is thinking about running for the U.S. Senate next year.

He's thinking hard about it. He told me his family is supportive of the idea and that a decision will come soon. It seems likely he will ultimately announce that he's indeed running. If he does, he'll be among the front-runners in the race to replace retiring Sen. Dan Coats.

So let's move on, because Young isn't ready to break the news and the politics of 2016 wasn't why I got him on the phone last week. Something else was on my mind.

Whiskey.

Or bourbon, vodka and — well, pick the spirit of your choice.

You see, while press releases don't usually grab me, one sent out by the Bloomington Republican's office last week did. "Young introduces the Distillery Innovation and Excise Tax Reform Act," it read.

Congress and distilleries? How could I resist?

Turns out, Young's bill is in response to a little bit of Kentucky tradition spilling into Indiana in recent years, particularly in his 9th Congressional District, which stretches across the south-central part of the state.

U.S. Rep. Todd Young

"One of the great things about my job is I get to visit all kinds of small businesses," Young said, telling me that's meant visiting many of the new Indiana wineries and breweries that have gotten so much attention of late. But while those businesses have been celebrated, Young said a new crop of craft distilleries, boosted by a new state law allowing them to make retail sales, hasn't been as widely noticed.

"The more we heard," he said, "the more we got the sense that this is a growing segment of the beverage market."

Now, I'm not a drinker of whiskey, bourbon or other spirits. (How I became a wine drinker, despite growing up in the shadows of the Northwest Indiana steel mills, is beyond me.) Still, the history and culture of the industry is as interesting as it gets. And, as Young pointed out, the emerging group of distilleries exemplify the American entrepreneurial spirit at its core.

Plus, his district is home to many people who work just across the Kentucky border at Brown-Forman, one of the nation's largest distilleries. So before anyone gets upset at a congressman for talking about whiskey while Washington spins the bottle on issues such as the NSA and education, please don't forget that swirling in this talk of spirits is jobs.

That's a big part of the reason Young got involved in the issue. When he visits distilleries, he said, he doesn't ask about the bourbon-making process but about the bottom line. How's the business doing? What are your concerns? What is government doing to get in the way?

Time and again, one issue comes up: Taxes.

It turns out distilled spirits are taxed at the federal level at a substantially higher rate than beer and wine. According to the industry, more than half of the cost of a bottle of spirits goes to federal, state and local taxes.

With that in mind, Young and Rep. John Yarmuth, a Kentucky Democrat, introduced HR 2520. The bill would reduce the per proof gallon federal tax rate from $13.50 to $2.70, for the first 100,000 gallons. After that, the rate would jump to $9. Because of non-federal taxes, The Washington Post estimates this would drop the cost of a bottle by $2 at most. Nonetheless, it's about parity and fairness, Young said.

"When over half of the revenue that you pay goes to taxes and fees that, to me, suggests a reduction in taxes and fees is justified," he said.

In the end, is this a big deal on par with so many other issues facing Congress? Of course not.

Are there other industries more critical to Indiana's future? Certainly.

Do I support the idea? I don't know. Personally, I have more empathy for small distilleries than the giant ones this would also help.

But that does not diminish the validity of debates like this one. I love anything that shows lawmakers in Washington are paying attention to the changes in their districts. Young said his goal is to encourage innovation and to add to efforts to imbed Indiana with a greater sense of place, and distillery tours are a new part of that.

"I don't want to overstate the important of one bill," he said. "But it furthers the aim of creating an ecosystem where people want to work and live and play. "

As for that potential Senate run, Young declined to give me the scoop. Wait and see, he said. But he did answer my other question.

"I typically ask for a bourbon," he said.

You can reach me at matthew.tully@indystar.com or at Twitter.com/matthewltully.