If you toasted Independence Day with a hard lemonade or kicked back a Bacardi Breezer while tending the holiday barbecue, be prepared to kick in a little extra for your drinks next time around.

July 1 marked the official start of the new fiscal year, and that means new taxes and fees will be taking effect – including a $1.19-per-gallon hike on citrus flavored malt beverages, or about 66 cents on a six-pack.

That tax increase was tacked onto the tail-end of the 2006-2007 budget, along with a more highly publicized $1-a-pack hike in the cigarette tax.

It won’t go into effect until Oct. 1 to give convenience stores and bars that sell the drinks under their existing $200-a-year beer licenses to get an additional wine license for $220 that covers the spiked beverages.

An estimated 100 bars and restaurants and 260 stores will be affected, according to Lt. Patrick Fleming of the Department of Public Safety, which enforces liquor license regulations.

Fleming said the ability to collect the higher tax – $1.54 per gallon versus the 35-cent tax on beer – has been on the books since federal regulators ruled the flavored drinks were more like wine than beer because of their alcohol content.

The state decided to collect the extra fee because it needed the money to balance the budget.

Scattered throughout the biennium budget – approved in three parts – are a number of fee and tax hikes designed to raise money for the general fund; pay for programs that would not otherwise be funded because of the state’s current budget crunch; and, allow cities and towns to raise cash.