SALEM - Beer-tax advocates told a House panel Wednesday that drinkers should pay a few cents more per glass to help fund addiction treatment and other health programs that are withering under budget cuts.

The House Revenue Committee is considering several bills to boost the state's beer tax, which hasn't been raised since 1977.

An increase is long overdue, said Pamela Erickson, a former Oregon Liquor Control Commission director who now heads the Oregon Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking.

"Beer is not paying its fair share," she said.

Oregon's tax of $2.60 per 31-gallon barrel is 46th lowest in the nation. The bills would increase the tax by as much as $33 a barrel - 10 cents for a 12-ounce bottle.

The measures also would raise wine taxes. But Sen. Bill Morrisette, D-Springfield, said he and other bill sponsors agreed to drop that idea and focus on reaching a compromise on beer taxes.

Morrisette said the proposed higher wine tax would raise a relatively small portion of the total new revenue and that he views the state's wineries as more closely tied to economic development. His measure would raise the beer tax by about 7 cents a bottle, generating about $50 million a year.

Besides county treatment programs, Morrisette said money should be used for patients in the state Health Plan, which last month dropped addiction and mental health coverage for 100,000 low-income people because of state budget cuts.

"We're struggling to save the remnants" of the Health Plan, Morrisette said.

Beer industry lobbyists said all Oregonians - not just beer drinkers - should pay for treatment.

State and local officials earmark about 13 percent of the revenue from alcoholic beverage taxes and markups for treatment and prevention efforts, said Mark Nelson, a lobbyist representing Anheuser-Busch.

"Government has found these programs are not priorities," he said.

But treatment providers say demand far outstrips what they can do without more money.

Bob Wright, director of the Eastern Oregon Alcoholism Foundation in Pendleton, said an average of 44 people a month are waiting to get into the group's treatment facility, up from 20 a year ago.

Counties, often with money from the state, contract with such groups to run treatment programs.

Wright, a former superintendent of the state's Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, said 70 percent of inmates are in that prison because of drug and alcohol-related problems.

Lincoln County Commissioner Jean Cowan said she goes home depressed because "we're losing our ability to provide services."

Sponsors of the tax increase measures said they hope to unite on a compromise version and return to the committee with it.

The bills are Nos. HB2804, HB3258, HB2837.