Effort to Cut Mass. Alcohol Taxes Defeated

The Massachusetts House of Representatives has rejected Republican-led efforts to roll back a recent state sales-tax increase that included alcoholic beverages, the Associated Press reported April 27.

A pair of amendments to the state budget would have repealed the increase in the state sales tax from 5 percent to 6.25 percent, passed in 2009, and restored a previous sales-tax exemption on alcohol sales.

House lawmakers sent both proposals to study committees.