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If Arkansas Goes Wet, ABC Has Plan

7 min read

If Arkansans vote in November to open up the entire state to alcohol sales for the first time since the mid-1930s — and that remains a fairly big if — the man in charge of implementing the new order has a plan.

Michael Langley, director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, has thought through the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment. The first thing on his agenda: meetings, lots and lots of meetings. The second: the development of a legislative package to be considered in the session beginning in January.

Making Arkansas “wet” doesn’t end with amending the state Constitution. Instead, it will be start of work by Langley and others, likely including legislators, to build a legal framework to put the amendment into place.

Making Arkansas wet also doesn’t mean anything goes in terms of liquor sales. Representatives from the ABC — probably after the legislative session, Langley said — will visit newly wet communities to explain their local control options, and he emphasizes the “local control” aspect.

“Most people are not aware of the local control [measures] that they may or not be able to adapt for their community,” he said last week. “Some of these communities don’t have zoning and planning laws, and so that makes it a little bit more difficult.”

It’s those local zoning and planning laws that allow municipalities and other government subdivisions to exercise a certain amount of control over alcohol sales.

The majority of Arkansans — about 67 percent — already live where alcohol can be sold. Of the state’s 75 counties, 38 are completely wet, allowing alcohol sales in all forms as permitted by the ABC — in package stores, grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, bars and private clubs. Of the remaining 37, only six are completely dry, Langley said; the others allow private clubs.

He has no idea whether the amendment, Issue No. 4 on the Nov. 4 ballot, will pass, Langley said. But if it does, the effective date will be July 1, “so we would immediately jump into a planning stage,” he said. “We would meet with current [liquor] retailers, current wholesalers. We would begin to meet with legislators, governor’s staff.”

And then, Langley said, the ABC would start crafting legislation to implement the amendment.

In addition, he said, citizens of the newly wet areas will probably file legislation to limit access to alcohol in whatever ways they can.

“At the same time, there will probably be — because there were some in the last session — [proposals] to try to expand who may or may not own stores and those types of things,” Langley said. He added, however, “I think that is a nonstarter.”

The Arkansas General Assembly convenes its regular session on Jan. 12. Langley said that if the amendment passes, he thinks the Legislature will take a “conservative” approach to alcohol legislation, though he expects some additional regulations. Among them:

• Re-examined buffer zones between places where liquor is sold and churches and schools. Current law requires retail liquor stores to be at least 1,000 feet from a school or church. However, no distance restrictions exist for grocery or convenience stores that sell beer or small-farm wines, and Langley expects they’ll be proposed. He would recommend 300 or 500 feet, “but that’s for the Legislature to decide.”

• A new limit on the number of package stores permitted in each county. Currently, the state allows one package store per 5,000 residents of a wet county, but Langley thinks that will rise to one per every 7,500 people since stores can no longer expect business from neighboring dry counties. He cited the experience of Benton County, which voted in 2012 to allow alcohol sales. Last year, the ABC Board made 55 liquor permits available but approved only 39. Only 35 or so stores have been opened, Langley said, because that’s all the business the population could support. “It will probably end up in the mid-30s just like Washington County,” he said.

Langley doesn’t expect lawmakers to refrain from becoming involved in the minutia of alcohol regulation. The 1,000-foot buffer zone is now determined by a straight line measurement from building to building, but Langley expects the Legislature to consider whether that should be measured from property line to property line.

Foes Dig In

Supporters of the effort to allow the statewide sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol see it primarily as an economic development issue. But there are foes, they’re well-funded and they’re digging in for the fight.

Citizens for Local Rights, a group opposing the amendment, filed a lawsuit earlier this month challenging the placement of the measure on the ballot. The group says that supporters of the proposal missed the deadline to file their petitions with the Arkansas secretary of state’s office and that the measure’s ballot title is misleading.

Oral arguments before the state Supreme Court are scheduled for Oct. 9.

Brian Richardson of Jonesboro, a political consultant who leads Citizens for Local Rights, in a recent fundraising appeal to state liquor store owners called the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment a “dangerous and radical proposal.”

Richardson said the amendment would:

  • Make alcohol sales in all 75 Arkansas counties legal with no way for the counties, townships, cities or wards to be voted dry again.
  • Open the door for large corporations to own multiple permits.
  • Mean that grocery and convenience stores and big-box retailers would start selling liquor and wine.
  • Eliminate the buffer zone for schools and churches.

In an interview last week with Arkansas Business, Richardson called the amendment “overreaching and overly broad,” adding, “It takes a very essential and basic voting right away from local communities.”

Langley has a different view. Yes, the amendment would prevent localities from voting themselves dry again without a repealing amendment to the state Constitution. However, local governments can regulate liquor sales through local ordinances regarding zoning and hours of operations, and the ABC is prepared to lead them through those steps, likely using the city of Little Rock’s oversight of alcohol purveyors as a model or template.

Regarding Richardson’s other concerns, Langley said all would require a change in state law. That includes the contention that the amendment would open the door to corporate, multi-store liquor moguls: Langley said the law in Arkansas will remain one liquor store permit per one person or entity.

“The amendment reserves the right for regulation and the individual ownership statute is regulation,” he said. “If somebody wanted to challenge that in court, they certainly could. … They can have that law changed today if they have the power to go in there and affect the Legislature and change that law. But it is not the expectation of ABC that that would change.”

‘Local Responsibility’

David Couch is the Little Rock lawyer leading Let Arkansas Decide, the group that gathered signatures to get the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment on the ballot. Opposition to the amendment is all about liquor stores fearing competition from retailers opening in newly wet areas of the state, he contends.

“The people who are against it are the county-line liquor stores,” Couch said. “I live up in the Heights. The two liquor stores up in the Heights are not going to see any bit of difference in their business.”

But those stores just over the line from a dry county, “yeah, they’ll be affected by this,” Couch said. He added, however, that stores opening up in newly wet areas will tend to be “more neighborhood-related liquor stores like they are in the Heights or Hillcrest,” with a more local focus.

Ultimately, he said, “It’s all about business. It’s a much more fair, competitive proposition to allow competition statewide.”

That emphasis on “local” is important to the ABC, Langley said. That’s the reason behind the one-liquor-store-permit-per-person rule. “What it does is it promotes local ownership, local responsibility,” he said. “The idea is that if I am the owner of a retail liquor outlet, then you can find me, that I will be there looking over that store on a daily basis and making sure that it operates correctly, at the same time protecting local investment.”

Richardson denies that fear of competition is behind opposition to the amendment. But Citizens for Local Rights has raised more than $1.5 million, he said last week, and hopes to raise more.

“Every local alcohol retailer in Arkansas, regardless of geographic proximity, will be negatively affected if this amendment passes,” his fundraising letter states. “About 60 stores are currently shouldering the lion’s share of our fundraising. We must have more help.”

Couch’s group, Let Arkansas Decide, reported earlier this month that even after raising $55,000 in August, it remained almost $91,000 in debt. The group has received money from Kum & Go convenience stores and E-Z Mart, but not, Couch said, from the biggest, boxiest retailer of them all: Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

“We’re not going to be able to match the amount of money that the liquor stores are contributing, but we’ll be able to run a good campaign,” Couch said.

Asked what he thinks is behind the opposition to expanding alcohol sales, Langley paused, deliberated and said, “The folks that have opposed this — it’s their livelihood, and so they’re trying to protect their livelihood. Change is scary. Change is difficult.”

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