Archive for Alcohol Sales
Recent Stories for Alcohol Sales
Alcohol measure on ballot resisted
Category: Alcohol Sales · State: Arkansas · Source: Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Two Sharp County residents have filed lawsuits in attempts to keep an alcohol issue off the county’s November ballot, including one who requested a temporary injunction Monday that would delay the referendum if a judge cannot rule on it by the Nov. 4 election. The lawsuits, filed Friday afternoon in Sharp County Circuit Court, challenge both the wording of the petition and the signatures gathered by proponents of a move to allow the sale of alcohol in the north Arkansas county. Boone and Clark counties also have alcohol measures on the ballot. No organized opposition has surfaced yet in either county. Several groups in Benton County have tried twice since 2005 to get the issue on the ballot, failing both times to gather the 36, 600 signatures — 38 percent of registered voters — needed on petitions to get a proposal on the ballot. Ruth Reynolds, a retired Cherokee Village environmentalist, said allowing alcohol sales in Sharp County would reduce vehicle emissions because people wouldn’t have to drive as far to buy spirits.
Drink tax is kept off ballot
Category: Alcohol Sales · State: Pennsylvania · Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Allegheny County Board of Elections yesterday ruled that both referendum questions on the 10 percent drink tax should not be placed on the November ballot because they are illegal according to county and state law. In a ruling that seems to be a bigger blow to the restaurateurs and bar owners than it is to the county, the three judges temporarily serving as Board of Elections members unanimously declined to certify either ballot initiative. Bar and restaurant owners wanted to decrease the drink tax to 0.5 percent from 10 percent. The county wanted a referendum to offset a loss in drink tax revenues with a property tax increase. The county judges, appointed to replace the regular board members because of their public positions on both measures, cited established case law -- Hempfield School District v. Lancaster County -- to knock down the referendum petition by the group Friends Against Counterproductive Taxation, called FACT. FACT is composed of restaurateurs and bar owners who have opposed the drink tax since it was proposed together with a $2-a-day tax on car rentals to fund mass transit. It submitted 44,598 petition signatures to the county elections office last month in support of a ballot initiative to ask voters whether they want a reduction in the drink tax.
Repeal group says it has enough signatures
Category: Alcohol Sales · State: Michigan · Source: Grand Haven Tribune
The Say Yes to Sunday group says it has more than enough signatures to give Ottawa County voters a chance to repeal the ban on Sunday beer and wine sales. Now they'll have to wait and see how many of those petition signatures are from registered Ottawa County voters. The group said it has 39,700 signatures as of 8 this morning, which — if they are all valid — is 1,944 more than necessary to get the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot. Say Yes to Sunday spokesman Jim Storey said the group could have between 41,000 and 42,000 signatures by the time members deliver the petition to County Clerk Dan Krueger this afternoon.
Make it a double: 2 drink tax referenda likely
Category: Alcohol Sales · State: Pennsylvania · Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Drink tax foes will submit a petition to the Allegheny County board of elections today, setting the stage for dueling ballot referenda in November on the controversial levy. Friends Against Counterproductive Taxation amassed far more than the required 23,006 signatures to get its measure on the ballot, said the group's attorney, Cris Hoel. The referendum, if approved by county voters, would mandate that the tax on poured alcoholic drinks be reduced from 10 percent to no more than 0.5 percent. County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and his allies on County Council oppose such a measure, saying that reducing or eliminating the drink tax -- which, along with a $2-per-day rental car tax, helps fund the Port Authority -- would require a property tax hike to compensate.
Liquor Petition on Way
Category: Alcohol Sales · State: Tennessee · Source: Knoxville News Sentinel
A local anti-annexation group is launching an effort Monday to let voters decide whether to allow sales of liquor by the drink in Knox County outside the Knoxville and Farragut municipal limits. Knox County Election Commissioner Greg Mackay said he met with the group's leader and told him Tennessee law prohibits the sale of liquor by the drink outside the Knoxville or Farragut city limits. "State law says you can't do it in any County Commission district which has part of its boundaries in a municipality," Mackay said Friday afternoon. "Every (Knox) County Commission district has part of the city in it. How would you have a referendum on something you can't do? We talked it over with him a week or two ago."
Monthly Archives for Alcohol Sales
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