A Healthy Pour

What do we know about 1944?

Bing Crosby dominated the Billboard charts, for starters, sunscreen was being widely used for the first time, and lots of people were naming their baby girls Barbara and Linda.

We bring up 1944 because that’s the last time Benton County residents voted on whether it should be “wet” or “dry,” as in whether the retail sale of alcohol should be permitted. Now a group named Keep Dollars in Benton County has decided it’s worth asking again.

Rogers attorney Marshall Ney is counsel and spokesman for the group, which is being funded by Tom and Steuart Walton. Yes, they are part of those Waltons.

The group has retained the services of National Ballot Access to execute a petition drive aimed at putting the wet-dry question on November’s general election ballot. It’ll take signatures from 38 percent (about 40,000) of the county’s registered voters to make that happen.

Ney believes residents soon will start seeing NBA representatives — maybe as many as 20 — in public venues. They might even knock on doors.

 “If that becomes necessary, my expectation is they will do that,” he said.

Anyone who lives in, or visits, Benton County surely knows it already is “a pretty wet dry county,” as Ney put it. More than 100 “private clubs” have permits.

Translation: Pretty much any restaurant where you would expect to be able to buy an adult beverage will sell you one. The charade of buying a “membership” or “signing in” has all but been thrown out the window.

What the proposed move would do, however, is allow the sale of alcohol in places like, um, liquor stores. And grocery stores and convenience stores. You know, just like Washington County to the south and Missouri’s McDonald County to the north.

Benton County residents — and restaurant owners — no longer would have to spend money and sales taxes outside its borders. Furthermore, restaurant owners could buy directly from wholesalers, theoretically passing some of the savings to the public.

In fact, if enough signatures are collected and the vote is “Yes,” Benton County could see an economic impact of converting it from dry to wet of about $22 million. The total annual economic impact could be about $33 million.

That’s according to a fascinating study by the University of Arkansas’ Center for Business and Economic Research. See it for yourself at cber.uark.edu.

There is likely to be opposition to the proposed change, of course. Change is like that.

It seems here, though, it makes too much financial sense not to transform Benton County from the state’s unofficial wettest dry county into just another wet county.

We don’t listen to Bing Crosby that much anymore, after all, we all use sunscreen, and nobody we know names their daughter Barbara or Linda. We also know and understand the responsibilities and dangers that come with consuming alcohol far better than they did back in 1944.

So allow us, if you will, this toast: Here’s to making a decision based on practical — and fiscal — sense rather than clinging to antiquated notions.

Cheers.