Retired Southern Baptist minister Donald R. Cole of Webster County fears “a bar or liquor store on every other corner and a package store in every drug store” if new alcohol regulations proposed by Kentucky take effect.
“The more alcohol sales you have, the more social problems you have,” said Cole, executive director of the Louisville-based Kentucky League on Alcohol and Gambling Problems, formerly known as the Temperance League. “We don’t need these new regulations that are one more step toward the deregulation of the alcohol industry in Kentucky.”
The Kentucky Alcoholic Beverage Control Board last month filed proposed administrative regulations that would repeal rules that limit the number of licenses available for retail package liquor stores and by-the-drink sales of liquor.
The number of licenses is limited based on the population of a given community — one license per 2,300 people for package stores and one license per 2,500 people for drink sales.
Perry Colliver, owner of Route 11 Liquors in Mt. Sterling, opposes the changes.
“I’ve been in this business 40 years, not a millionaire, but have made a decent living,” Colliver said. “Now the state wants to come along and end the quota system, saying they want to expand the market. The pie for this business is so big. If you have more stores, the pie will get smaller for people like me.”
State Rep. C. Wesley Morgan, a Republican from Richmond who operates four Liquor World stores in Central and Eastern Kentucky, said he thinks the proposed change “will get a ton of opposition.”
“You either regulate the alcohol industry or not,” Morgan said. “This goes towards deregulation and hurts existing businesses.”
The board, in an impact and analysis statement, said “eliminating quotas may encourage entrepreneurship, foster creativity for new business models and create jobs.”
“The board believes that market forces rather than arbitrary quota limits should determine the number of businesses competing in a community,” the analysis stated.
The board also said elimination of the quota system provides “equitable treatment of all alcoholic beverage licenses.”
What Republicans want to do is have more big chain stores sell alcohol and put package stores out of business, then turn around and say "Look, we actually reduced the number of retailers that sell liquor in Kentucky, isn't that what you wanted?"
It's a pretty good deal for big retailers who want to break into Kentucky as a market, not so good for existing local stores, but that's always been the case with big retailers. I don't trust this plan any farther than Bevin can throw me.
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