Utah liquor commissioners decry looming budget cut

SALT LAKE CITY — A looming $653,000 cut to the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control budget was slammed Tuesday by liquor commissioners.

"I strongly object to this because it's really going to cost the state," DABC Commissioner Bobbie Coray said. "It will be millions of dollars lost at a time when we're struggling for every dollar."

For every $1 cut from the budget, department officials say the state will lose $5. Profits from the state-controlled sales of wine, liquor and some beers go to the school lunch program.

A plan for making the cut ordered by the 2010 Legislature will be presented to the commission next month. "It's no secret we're going to recommend we have to adjust store hours," DABC Director Dennis Kellen told the commission.

The exact amount of revenue that will be lost when the cuts are made is not yet known, DABC finance director Leonard Langford said, although he acknowledged if stores are open for fewer hours, sales will likely drop.

"This seems sort of a ridiculous cut," Coray said, asking why lawmakers decided last session to reduce revenues at a time when the state is already dealing with budget shortfalls.

"You'd have to ask the Legislature," Langford answered.

Coray said jobs will also be lost because of the cuts. "This is a really good process," she said sarcastically. "I'm angry."

Commission Chairman Sam Granato joined in the complaining, noting an additional $120,000 will have to be spent to comply with another decision lawmakers made last session, the requirement that the word "state" appear on Utah's liquor stores.

And Granato, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, also took a shot at the Legislature for declining to address a shortage of liquor licenses. Granato and others unsuccessfully lobbied to eliminate the state's population-based quota system for restaurant and bar licenses.

Looking over a crowded audience of license applicants Tuesday, Granato said, "Many of the people out here today are not going to receive licenses. … We're running a great state monopoly, but the rules are not quite fair."

Last month, commissioners decided to cut the hours at the Heber City store and the new Salt Lake City wine store at 280 W. Harris Ave. The department has already cut $565,000 in the current budget year ending June 30, mostly from the "Parents Empowered" program aimed at curbing underage drinking.

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