Senator Ben Cardin Visits Flying Dog To Talk Small Business

With a homebrewer on his staff, Senator Ben Cardin said he thinks he drinks more craft beer than anyone else in the Senate. 

And with a Doggie Style Pale Ale in hand, Sen. Cardin toured our brewery today as part of his “Made in Maryland” tour of companies that are supporting jobs in Maryland. After the tour, he hosted a roundtable discussion with Frederick County small business owners, including members of the Brewers Association of Maryland, in our taproom. 

A member of the Senate Finance and Small Business committees, Sen. Cardin is also the sponsor of the Small Brewer Reinvestment and Expanding Workforce Act (Small BREW Act). The bill, which 26 other Senators have co-sponsored, would reduce the excise tax on small brewers, which has not been updated since 1976.

Craft breweries, like Flying Dog, are small, independent businesses that employ almost 110,000 employees nationwide and generate more than $3 billion in wages and benefits per year. However, we pay more than $2.3 billion per year in business, personal, and consumption taxes.

Here in Maryland, the state’s 29 craft breweries paid a total of $213,267,800 in taxes last year after $94,899,800 of economic contributions to the state. 

An economic impact study by Dr. John Friedman at Harvard University found that the Small BREW Act would generate $183.1 million in economic activity in the first year and create nearly 5,230 jobs nationwide.