Budget woes exacerbate tension between Utah Legislature, Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control

SALT LAKE CITY — Some key lawmakers are ready to show state liquor regulators who's boss after hearing public complaints about budget cuts.

So they've released a new audit directing the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to consider closing a liquor store.

And that's just for starters.

The audit is only a small part of a much more detailed examination still under way of the department that manages the state's monopoly on the sale of liquor, wine and high-alcohol beer.

Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, said the auditors will help determine if, last year, the department should have cut a program aimed at underage drinking.

"It kind of rankled me," Waddoups said of the reduction to the Parents Empowered program. "That was a very good priority of the Legislature."

The Senate leader, whose wife was seriously injured by a drunken driver, questioned whether the department chose to make that cut in the current budget year to pressure lawmakers not to ask for another reduction.

"Sometimes it's very obvious when somebody cuts, that's the only place the cut can be made," Waddoups said. "Other times you wonder if there's politics being played."

Knowing that a bigger audit is coming appears to have eased the commission's criticism of the Legislature's request for another budget cut, at least for now.

"It seems to have had the desired effect," Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, said of releasing a portion of the audit early. "It has said to the DABC, 'You are partners in the reductions that everybody has to do.' "

Valentine said he was caught off guard when department commissioners, including chairman Sam Granato, openly balked at having to reduce their budget by $653,000.

Facing another year of revenue shortfalls, the 2010 Legislature cut the budgets of most state programs again. The department, Valentine said, was no exception.

"I would not expect them to sit there and be saying, 'We can't do this,' " he said. "I was surprised by the comments. I expected them to recognize the situation."

Granato and others argued that, unlike other state agencies, the department generates millions of dollars annually used to pay for school lunches and other government needs. They warned the budget cut could end up costing the state more than $1.7 million in lost revenue and questioned why the state would knowingly give that up in such tough economic times.