Siso Ranuga, of Colonial Wholesale Beverage in North Dartmouth, Mass., arranges cases of Miller beer he’s delivering to Yankee Spirits in Attleboro. Some Rhode Island customers say they’ll no longer shop at the store to save on tax.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

Rhode Island will benefit Aug. 1 when Massachusetts begins taxing beer, wine and alcohol to help balance a $27-billion state budget, according to people on both sides of the border.

The Bay State will raise its sales tax from 5 percent to 6.25 percent –– nearly on par with Rhode Island’s 7 percent sales tax –– and start applying the tax to alcoholic beverages.

For beer sales, the new tax will be toted up in addition to the 5-cent-per-bottle deposit required by Massachusetts’ mandatory bottle bill. There is no bottle deposit charge in Rhode Island

“If they’re going to do that, there’s no sense in coming across the border,” said Joe Martin, of Pawtucket, who now drives to Attleboro to buy beer and liquor at Yankee Spirits in Attleboro.

Massachusetts liquor store managers are grumbling and their Rhode Island counterparts are rejoicing, as both expect the change to affect sales at stores along Massachusetts’ border –– at least in the short term.

When asked about the change, the owner of Azevedo’s Mini Mart on Route 44 in Rehoboth, Roy Azevedo, held up his right hand and wagged his index finger.

“People, for one penny, they drive miles away,” said Azevedo. “You don’t think they’re going to drive for $1.25?”

On the Rhode Island side of the border, another liquor store owner had a different reaction.

“I don’t want to seem overly excited or jumping for glee,” said Elliott Fishbein, of Town Wine & Spirits in East Providence. “But I couldn’t be happier. For the first time all of the stores in Rhode Island will be able to be on a fair, competitive field.”

Prices of beer, wine and liquor change by day and by individual store, but here’s one example of how the change would affect your wallet: a 30-pack of Budweiser Light costs $23.40 at Hills Package Store in Seekonk. Adding in $1.46 based on the 6.25-percent sales tax brings it to $24.86. The bottle deposit adds $1.50, meaning that after Aug. 1, the same 30-pack of beer will cost $26.36.

On the Rhode Island side of the border, the same 30-pack of Bud Light sells for about $21. Adding the 7-percent sales tax tacks on about $1.50 to the bill, bringing it to about $22.50.

There are some liquor dealers in nearby Massachusetts who say they have the wherewithal to regain the advantage.

“Initially, it might affect us; we’ve cut back [inventory] anticipating we’re going to lose some business,” said Dave Cummings, chief operating officer of Yankee Spirits, a supermarket-sized store in Attleboro. “[Customers] will come back once they see prices at other places.”

The Carcieri administration expects other Rhode Islanders to react like Joe Martin and keep more of their liquor purchases in-state. But it’s unclear at this point how much Rhode Island will be affected by residents buying at home rather than crossing into Massachusetts, as some do now, to escape this state’s tax on liquor.

“We believe there will be some positive impact” on liquor sales, said Gary Sasse, director of the Rhode Island Department of Administration. “We don’t have any good data on cross-border impacts. Measuring that is pretty problematic.”

It’s also uncertain how much tax revenue Massachusetts will never see from people driving to New Hampshire, where there’s no sales tax, to buy liquor.

“Residents, at least along the border, can shop in another state,” said Natasha Altamirano, a spokeswoman for the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan policy group in Washington, D.C. “Economists and businessmen are certain that sales taxes do have a major effect on consumer behavior, that’s why catalog shopping and Internet shopping have become so popular.”

The “standard thinking,” according to Robert Bliss, of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, is that sales drop 1 percent for every 1-percent increase in sales tax.

“There will be some bleeding across state lines,” Bliss said. “And, some people may simply buy less.”

Massachusetts expects to raise $80 million in fiscal 2010 from taxing beer, wine and liquor, Bliss said.

The tax “doesn’t help anybody,” said Eduardo Peixoto, of Pawtucket, a regular Yankee Spirits customer. “I’m not going to come here. Eventually, everyone is going to go back to Rhode Island.”

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, is sure Bay State shopkeepers will lose business.

“It not only gives people here incentive to go over the border, it also removes the incentive for residents in other states — in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York — to come over here to buy stuff,” Hurst said. “It’s a double hit.”

Seekonk resident Russell Greaves said maybe it’s time to trade in his sedan for a larger vehicle.

“If I had a truck, I’d stock up” in New Hampshire, said Greaves, as he stood outside Hills Package Store, on Fall River Avenue in Seekonk, a 20-pack of Budweiser in one hand.

In the past, Martin always figured the bottle deposit was worth paying, a sort of “equalizer,” he said, to Rhode Island’s sales tax.

Now, he may buy less at Yankee Spirits, where The Journal caught up to him this week, Martin said, once the new sales tax gets figured into the price of the 30-packs of Miller Lites he stocks up on every couple of months.

The Attleboro store also is the closest place he can find a favorite brand of coffee liqueur, Martin said.

While a volume-sales operation such as Yankee Spirits may cut prices to cushion customers from the tax, small shops such as Azevedo’s don’t have the scale to absorb the cost.

“If you cut your fingernails too much, you start to bleed,” said Azevedo. Price difference

Based on the current price of a 30-pack of Bud Light, here’s what you can expect to pay as of Aug. 1 in

Rhode Island and

Massachusetts:

In Massachusetts:

Base price: $23.40

Sales tax: $1.46

Deposit: $1.50

Total price: $26.36

In Rhode Island:

Base price: $21

Sales tax: $1.47

Total price: $22.47

pgrimald@projo.com