Thursday, the La Crosse County Board debated whether to recommend the state of Wisconsin raise taxes on alcohol and use the increased revenue to offset alcohol-related health and law enforcement expenses.

Opponents argued there's no guarantee the state would use extra tax money for alcohol treatment and education, and Wisconsin overall has some of the highest taxes in the country.

"I represent La Crosse County on the Mayor's Alcohol Oversight Committee and I just can't support this," said Supervisor Jerry Sebranek. "You're going about this backwards. Might as well just go to prohibition. What more can you do to the people that depend on businesses that dispense alcohol? ... They go under entrapment, they're scrutinized every day, people are in there checking on them and it's a game of tag, trying to catch them doing something wrong. You're going about this backwards, what you've got to do is go to the people that have the problem and you've gotta educate them before they become alcoholics and abuse this stuff. It's just all wrong."

Supporters argued each Wisconsin resident pays $1.82 in beer taxes a year, compared to $18 in alcohol treatment costs, $154 in alcohol-related health care costs and $500 in alcohol-related criminal justice and societal costs. Wisconsin has the third-lowest beer tax in the country.

"As you see by all the statistics we do have an issue in this state and in this county with alcohol," said Supervisor Jill Billings. "It costs money to educate people. I liked Supervisor Sebranek's idea to educate people. But that costs money. Providing treatment to people costs money. This is a way that I can think of that we tax the people who use the alcohol and that helps to pay for the price of being a county and a state that has such a drinking culture. We see it in our human services, we see it in children's protective services, we saw the statistics about drinking and domestic violence. We pay for it in economic support where people who have alcohol issues have a harder time keeping jobs."

The final vote was 17-13 in favor of the resolution. Notice anything about how they voted?

Yes: Sharon Hampson, Margaret Wood, Jill Billings, Maureen Freedland, Tom Rauk, Joe Veenstra, Bridget Flood, Beverly Mach, Dennis Manthei, Tammy Gamroth, Marilyn Pedretti, Vicki Burke, Jim Berns, Steve Doyle, Ann Fisher, Audrey Kader and Bill Brockmiller.

No: Roger Plesha, Ralph Geary, Gerald Sebranek, Leon Pfaff, John Medinger, Robert Keil, Ray Ebert, Robert Erickson, Arlene Benrud, Donald Meyer, Donald Bina, Charles Spiker and Brad Pfaff.

Absent: Tara Johnson, Joe Bilskemper, Andrea Richmond, Jeff Schroeder, Jai Johnson.

Men voted against the alcohol tax by a 2-to-1 margin. Women voted for the alcohol tax by an 11-to-1 margin. The men and women who voted for the tax tend to be liberals. But those against it are from all over the political spectrum.