ABC Committee Floats Proposal

Special Report - April 12, 2010
On April 8, the Joint Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) met to hear further public comment on proposed revisions to the State’s ABC system, and to introduce draft legislation. Many representatives from non-profit organizations, counselors who deal with substance abuse problems, and law enforcement professionals testified against privatizing the system. No one testified in favor of privatization of liquor sales in North Carolina.

Citing a statistic that North Carolina is both 48th in the nation for per capita consumption of alcohol and third in government revenues generated by alcohol sales, the speakers argued that the current control system both curtails social ills and channels money into important local and state-level government. The system of local (county or municipality) level control creates an important revenue source for many local level governments.

Commenter Robert Howard, who is the mayor of Southport, NC, stated that the ethics questions that have been raised concerning the ABC system in the past year have caused many to call for reform. While he acknowledged that any ethical questions need to be solved, he remarked that it was unfortunate that the rare cases had jeopardized the revenue sources of many counties and municipalities.

During his testimony before the committee, North Carolina Family Policy Council president, Bill Brooks, stated: “Rather than throwing out North Carolina’s long and impressive legacy of acting in the best interest of public health by taking authority away from local citizens and doing away with state control of a risky substance, raising the threshold for ABC elections would better ensure efficiently operated stores by requiring a more sustainable level of support in the community.”

Currently, new ABC boards and retail sites may be established by cities of 500 registered voters or more. Because many ABC stores exist in a community that is too small to make them profitable, or are in too close a proximity with other stores, a number of stores throughout the state lose money or post smaller than expected revenue numbers. The draft legislation presented at the meeting would boost that threshold to 5,000 registered voters. It would also require unprofitable stores to merge with other stores, at the discretion of the State ABC Commission. This mandate concerned some, such as Rep. Pryor Gibson (D–Anson), who felt such a measure might infringe upon the will of the voters who had established the local board.

The draft legislation removed any reference to privatization of the ABC system or to the introduction of agency stores, where the state would contract with private retailers to sell liquor in a portion of existing retail space like a convenience or grocery store. However, the Committee will continue to discuss the inclusion of new requirements for local ABC boards like establishing a mission statement and mandatory ethics training.

The Study Committee will meet again on April 22 at 2 p.m. to continue to discuss draft legislation. The Committee needs to have a report and any proposed legislation ready for the General Assembly when the Short Session begins on May 12. More information on the Committee’s work can be found in our previous story.

Related article:
Alcohol Becomes Popular Topic - March 26, 2010

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