Alcohol ban is normal — even for Las Vegas

Las Vegas is rightly known as a party town — but even Sin City doesn't allow its municipal employees to use tax dollars to purchase alcoholic beverages as Salt Lake City now does.

"The city does not reimburse for alcohol purchases under any circumstance," Las Vegas spokeswoman Dianna Paul said.

And Vegas isn't alone.

The Deseret Morning News contacted several cities this week inquiring about their alcohol policies. Officials in Denver, San Jose, Phoenix, Cincinnati, Boise, Oklahoma City, Las Vegas and Reno all said their cities forbid employees to use tax dollars to purchase alcohol, even when on city business.

In Ohio, it's not only against city policy but state law actually forbids local governments from spending tax dollars on booze, said Pam Sacherman, who works for Cincinnati's finance and audit department.

"It's spelled out pretty clearly," she said.

That news is catching some City Council members in Salt Lake City off guard. Now, they say they may take another look at Mayor Rocky Anderson's decision to allow city employees to use tax dollars to buy alcohol for the people they wine and dine while engaged in city business.

Council members say they may have their council staff look into the public policy reasons behind other municipal alcohol bans. If those reasons are compelling, they say they would consider an ordinance that would reinstate the city's ban on using tax dollars to purchase booze.

"Perhaps we ought to find out why so many cities have such a policy before we act too quickly," Council Chairman Dale Lambert said. "When the mayor did this he said it makes us look stupid. Apparently everybody looks stupid."

On Thursday, Anderson amended city policy to allow city employees to use tax dollars to purchase alcohol while conducting official city business. Previously, former mayors Palmer DePaulis and Deedee Corradini had bans on using city funds to buy liquor.

"It's that kind of alcohol policy that makes us look absolutely foolish to the rest of the world," Anderson said earlier this week.