A Potential Revenue Source for Public Safety

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Permalink Reply by Shelli Russell on November 26, 2009 at 9:24pm

You're preaching to the choir with me, baby!

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Permalink Reply by guitarman on November 27, 2009 at 9:08pm

You really should have not posted that. It makes too much sense.

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Permalink Reply by Munky on November 28, 2009 at 11:36am

Under the subject of "We missed the boat", the Shelli said: A WHAT kind of county? Say it louder so's more folks can hear you!

We can be even more clever than that! What if the county stays dry and Benton goes wet? Then people would be drving from Malvern, Bryant, Bauxite, etc. to Benton to purchase a case of beer for their weekly or monthly consumption, and shopping and visiting our restaurants while they are here.
This is the South: beer is the beverage of most frequent consumption, and for economic reasons, people like to buy it by the 6-pack, 12-pack or case. We need to have package stores that sell beer, wine and distilled beverages.

Think of the revenue this would produce for public safety!
Think of how much more interesting Benton would be! It would increase the base of people that would support the Royal Theater, Tinseltown, community events, restaurants and other entertainment venues!

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Permalink Reply by Shelli Russell on November 29, 2009 at 12:26am

I'm not absolutely certain, but I think Arkansas law says a portion of a wet county may choose to stay dry, but not the other way around.

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Permalink Reply by Munky on November 29, 2009 at 6:10am

Okay. Let's do whatever we can do!

Shelli Russell said:

I'm not absolutely certain, but I think Arkansas law says a portion of a wet county may choose to stay dry, but not the other way around.

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Permalink Reply by Brad Moore on November 29, 2009 at 8:22am

I am a proponent of taxing liquor by the drink in Benton and dedicating those funds to Public Safety. The Benton City Council can initiate this tax with a vote of the council. Due to the fact that the sales volume information is proprietary, it is impossible to estimate the revenues this tax would generate.

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Permalink Reply by Munky on November 29, 2009 at 8:43am

Fantastic idea!

Brad Moore said:

I am a proponent of taxing liquor by the drink in Benton and dedicating those funds to Public Safety. The Benton City Council can initiate this tax with a vote of the council. Due to the fact that the sales volume information is proprietary, it is impossible to estimate the revenues this tax would generate.

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Permalink Reply by Bobby Shell on November 29, 2009 at 3:35pm

I am all for this tax....The folks that drink in Benton do use public safety when they get arrested for DWI, Crash int something or someone, get into arguments they usually wouldn't...well thats my opinion....good post Munkey. :)

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Permalink Reply by Greg White on November 30, 2009 at 8:43am

You have my support and we only need 4 other votes. So, lets do this thing!

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Permalink Reply by Shelli Russell on November 30, 2009 at 9:48am

I would like to hear the opinions of those who voted against the sales tax that would have benefited public safety. If a tax on alcohol by the drink something you would support?

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Permalink Reply by Harper on November 30, 2009 at 9:59am

I wouldn’t oppose the drink tax, but I would like to know how it would be enforced to ensure that all establishments complied.

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Permalink Reply by Greg White on November 30, 2009 at 11:20am

Any special local taxes have to be administered by the local government. For instance, A & P taxes are submitted on a locally produced form and are paid directly to that account by the business that collects the tax. The cost of that accounting function would rest with our City Clerk's office or it could be outsourced as A & P does with
Chilton's Accounting Services.
Personally, I think that it is time to make that elected position a full-time position: CityClerk/Treasurer. This position could not only be responsible for these collections, but could also consider be responsible for A & P collections at a fee to A&P. This administrative charge would offset the cost of making this position full-time and would definitely improve our services in that office, since then the office would be open at all regular City Hall office times.
As far as calculating potential drink tax revenues, here is a way to do that. A state supplemental tax of 10% is paid on all alcoholic beverages sold. This information is available from the DFA. It will probably be identified by zip code collections or city codes. This amount includes all alcoholic beverages, thus unlike A & P, beer and wine is included. The maximum local tax allowed is 10% which matches this supplemental tax. Thus, we could actually know the potential revenues generated on a monthly basis. See Arkansas Annotated Code 3-9-212 & 3-9-215

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