MAGNOLIA, Ark. (AP) - A group in south Arkansas has begun gathering signatures for a ballot measure to legalize alcohol sales in Columbia County.
Vote for Growth in Columbia County announced Tuesday that it will work to get the measure on the ballot this year. Committee chairman David Nelson said Columbia County outlawed alcohol sales in 1943 but that the issue hasn’t come up for a vote in decades. Proponents of the measure said it will promote economic growth in the area.
“Columbia County has no significant river or rail, and no four-lane highway, and the committee strongly believes that being a dry county is another negative that the cities and county cannot afford while vying for jobs and trying to keep our own citizens,” Nelson said.
Nelson said Columbia County is losing out on revenue that’s now going to neighboring counties and parishes in Louisiana where alcohol sales are legal.
“Just think about how many liquor stores are right on the county line,” Nelson said. “They do that intentionally to capture revenues from Columbia County.”
The group must gather signatures from 38 percent of registered voters in the county - or about 6,300 people - to qualify for the ballot, the Banner-News reported (https://bit.ly/1c2DOwl ).
“We are driving a three-cylinder car,” Nelson said. “Allowing alcohol sales helps our tax revenues, helps our restaurants, and makes us more attractive to industry. It’s another economic piston that we need for this race.”
If the measure gets on the ballot and is approved by voters, the number of liquor permits issued for the county will be based on population. Nelson estimated that Columbia County could have four to six liquor stores, based on current population numbers.
No organized opposition has emerged.
Several counties have legalized alcohol sales in recent years. Benton County in northwest Arkansas approved the sales in November 2012, and last year, voters in North Little Rock lifted a decades-long ban on the sales of alcohol in the Park Hill neighborhood.
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Information from: The Banner-News, https://www.bannernews.net
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