CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The price of beer has a good chance of increasing this year if West Virginia lawmakers can get a proposed tax hike to Gov. Joe Manchin's desk.

Manchin won't veto a higher tax on suds, spokesman Matt Turner said Monday, but getting lawmakers to raise the price of such a popular product during an election year could be a challenge for the bill's supporters.

Delegate Bill Hamilton introduced legislation Monday that he says is one of several planned attempts to fund substance abuse treatment and prevention by raising taxes on alcohol.

Monday's bill is the pricier of two the Upshur County Republican has proposed so far. Both would raise the beer tax, which has remained at $5.50 per barrel since 1966.

The latest bill would increase that to $22, or by four cents per bottle or can. The other beer tax bill, reintroduced Feb. 1 from last year's session, would add a penny to the price of each bottle or can by hiking the tax to $11 per barrel.

"We will be looking at wine and liquor, but you can't put them all in the same bill because they're different parts of the state code," Hamilton said.

Hamilton said treatment programs need stable annual funding, instead of one-time money from settlements reached in lawsuits filed by the attorney general against prescription drug makers and similar sources.

"You've got to have a continuing source to fund these programs," he said.

Hamilton cited recent testimony before the House Judiciary Committee that 30 of the state's 55 counties lack any sort of treatment program.

"My point is, we do not have the programs now," he said.

Last November, the West Virginia Partnership for Community Well-Being, a state policy and planning board, responded to a directive from Manchin by creating the first statewide plan aimed at combating drug and alcohol abuse.

The plan carries a recommended annual price tag of $23.5 million, with an increased tax on alcohol a possible revenue stream.

At the time, Manchin said finding the funding for the plan would be one of his top priorities this year, but he wasn't sold on the idea that a tax hike was the only way to do it.

"We can always hide behind these challenging economic times as a reason not to do something," he said then. "This is one we can't afford not to do."

Last month, though, when Manchin introduced his proposed spending plan for the coming fiscal year, funding for the programs recommended by the report weren't included.

"It appears the governor hasn't come forward so far with either a funding plan of his own or a recommendation for us," said Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, a supporter of raising the beer tax.

Officials estimated that last year's bill would have raised around $7.6 million. It was up for a vote in the House when the 2009 session ended. Hamilton said House leaders had questioned its chances of passing after wholesale beer distributors actively lobbied against it.

A call to the West Virginia Beer Wholesalers Association was not immediately returned Monday.

Although Manchin is receptive to the idea, getting a bill to his desk will not be easy.

"Raising taxes in an election year," Foster said. "It's a challenge."

But supporters of the measure are hoping that the proposed outlet for the tax hike _ funding substance abuse treatment and prevention in a state with severe drug abuse problems _ will help overcome their colleagues' skittishness.

"This is costing the state so much money every year that this funding should be seen as an investment," Foster said.

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Associated Press Writer Lawrence Messina contributed to this report.