David Couch: Why Arkansas Voters Should OK Alcoholic Beverage Amendment

Editor’s note: David Couch is a native of Newport and a lifelong Arkansan. He is a practicing attorney in Little Rock and has been involved in numerous initiated issues over the years, including support for the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment, Issue 4.

On Nov. 4, the voters of this state will have the freedom to decide if the sale of alcoholic beverages will be legal in all of Arkansas’ 75 counties. It is a choice that has been denied to many of the citizens in the dry counties and cities of this state because of substantial barriers established by the existing liquor stores and their lobbyists in order to protect their vast profits.

The Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment is a grassroots movement that originated when citizens from all parts of the state attempted to get a local option election on the ballot but found that task too burdensome and banded together to see that all Arkansans get to voice their opinion on this issue. Why was it too burdensome? Because the threshold of signatures for changing alcohol sales laws in Arkansas is 38% of the signatures of registered voters. For issues such as sales tax initiatives, it’s 15%.

At the core of this movement is the desire to see that their community gets to benefit from the substantial economic and social benefits derived from the sale of alcohol. Such sales not only benefit the counties and cities by virtue of the taxes they generate, but also draw commercial and retail growth to the counties and cities and make the areas more appealing to businesses and their employees.

These benefits are real, and dry counties are missing out. This year the Center for Business and Economic Research at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at University of Arkansas assessed the revenue and economic impacts of Craighead, Faulkner and Saline counties becoming wet. In these three counties alone, the study determined that alcohol sales will generate $389,022 in county sales tax revenues (Saline County has no sales tax), $916,530 in city sales tax revenues and $165,630 in property tax revenues.

In addition to tax revenues, it was estimated that it would create 436 new local jobs with an estimated local labor income of $17,025,898. Using standard economic multipliers to estimate the total economic impact of allowing alcohol sales in these three counties alone was $34,228,035.

If a new business were coming to our state that would generate that much revenue and jobs, Arkansans would definitely be behind it.

Arkansas’ arcane liquor laws date back to the repeal of prohibition and have been modified over the years to create a patchwork of complex and confusing laws, many of which were enacted as a way to allow alcohol to be sold in dry areas. The number of dry counties in Arkansas nearly equals the number of dry counties in the remainder of the United States.

The Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment authorizes the sale of alcoholic beverages in all counties; however, it specifically authorizes the General Assembly to regulate the sale of alcohol.

Anticipating that some existing regulations might need to be revised when the amendment passes, the sponsor of the amendment made it effective on July 1, 2015. The General Assembly meets in January 2015 and can therefore make new – or change existing – regulations to prepare for the amendment to take effect. In addition, the counties and cities in anticipation of the sale of alcohol can exercise their local control through zoning and planning laws prior to July 1, 2015.

It’s also important to note that the amendment does not change any current regulation, including:

• It does not allow liquor stores to be next to a church or a school.
• It does not do away with the election to allow the sale of mixed drinks.
• In Arkansas, only one person or corporation can have a permit to operate a liquor store and must live in the county or within 35 miles of that store.

There is nothing in the amendment that would change any of these laws.

Opponents claim that the amendment does away with local control, but this assertion is hypocritical. Yes, it is true that a local option election will not be available if the amendment passes; however, as this article started it shall end: The local option election is not a choice for most of the citizens in the dry counties and dry cities of this state.

The existing liquor stores and their lobbyists have enacted barriers to this choice, citizens in dry counties are not able to go to the polls to vote on this issue, and many counties haven’t allowed such elections in generations.

No better example can be given than with the effort earlier this year to get the local option on the ballot in Faulkner County. According to reports filed with the Arkansas Ethics Commission, the county-line liquor stores in Conway and Pulaski counties spent $330,697.72 on efforts to keep this issue off the ballots for Faulkner County citizens. Is that local control? Faulkner County activists wanted their citizens to vote on this issue, but could not bring it to the ballot due to influence and pressure from out-of-county liquor stores.

These same liquor stores, along with others from around the state, are funding the opposition to this amendment statewide. These people want voters to believe that they support local control, but when these same voters try to exercise their own right to self-government they are thwarted at every turn.

The Arkansas Alcoholic Amendment will have a tremendous positive impact on the Arkansas economy. It will lead to the modernization and standardization of the regulation of alcohol in Arkansas. Finally it will give every Arkansas the freedom to decide this issue with his or her individual vote.