ABC Reform
If there’s consensus on reforming state liquor sales, it wasn’t apparent during the latest meeting of legislative study committee charged with evaluating the system. Committee members examined a series of proposals intended to ensure store profitability, provide the state ABC Commission with more authority over local boards, and create ethics and pay standards for local ABC officials. Several proposals met resistance. “You’ve told every town in my district you can no longer do this,” said Rep. Pryor Gibson, D-Anson. Gibson was criticizing a proposal that would limit ABC package stores to towns with at least 5,000 registered voters and mixed drink elections to towns with at least 500 registered voters. His criticism didn’t stop there. He and Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake, also questioned the cost of some of the proposals, including one that would fund Alcohol Law Enforcement operations with 2 percent of the receipts taken in by local ABC boards.
Rep. Edgar Starnes, R-Caldwell, wasn’t happy with the push for profitability. “I don’t want our focus to be on profitability. It should be on control,” Starnes said. The complaints came even though the draft legislation drops a provision that would have given the state ABC Commission power to force mergers of local ABC boards. The commission would be able to adopt performance standards for local boards and require training of local board members and employees. Compensation of board members and local ABC general managers would also be limited, with general managers’ pay tied to that of local clerks of Superior Court. The draft bill would also require local ABC officials to follow the state ethics law and prohibit nepotism in local hiring practices. The study committee is expected to finalize its recommendations on May 5.(THE INSIDER, 4/23/10).
