A veteran Alabama lawmaker is making a new push to shut down the state’s government-run liquor stores, calling the system “a boondoggle” and saying he foresees a positive reception from Governor-elect Tommy Tuberville’s administration.
State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur), who has sponsored versions of the bill for more than a decade, is drafting new legislation to phase Alabama out of retail liquor sales ahead of the 2027 session.
“It’s a boondoggle. It’s a debacle,” Orr said Tuesday on “The Rightside” hosted by Allison Sinclair and Amie Beth Shaver in partnership with Yellowhammer News. “So why are we still doing this?”
Alabama got into liquor sales coming out of Prohibition, on the theory that the state had to stand between its citizens and the bottle. Nine decades later, the state is a retailer competing against the private package stores it licenses.
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“The best way to control it and make sure people aren’t getting too much of the fire water is to have our own state-controlled stores and distribution,” Orr said of the thinking at the time. “Well, as we all know, the mindset towards alcohol has tremendously relaxed since the days of Prohibition. So why are we still doing this? So many states have exited the retail sales and a good many the wholesale side of things, and government cannot do this efficiently.”
Orr said the numbers at the store level do not hold up.
“We’ve got locations in the state where they lose money year over year,” Orr said. “We’re subsidizing locations around the state that habitually lose money in the Black Belt and other places, and that makes no sense. And then you lose the owner-operator mentality. I’ve gotten emails from former employees, and they talk about, well, those broken bottles always seem to walk out the door on the Friday afternoon at the end of the shift. Those bottles that were, quote, broken during the week. I mean, just that kind of nonsense.”
Then there is the warehouse.
The ABC Board is building a 250,000-square-foot facility in Montgomery, and last year it raised its per-case bailment fee from 72 cents to $1 to help pay for it.
“It’s absolutely absurd the cost that we’re spending on the ABC,” Orr said.
Orr has carried a version of this bill for more than a decade. A Senate committee rejected it in 2019. He named the three groups that beat it every time. The first argues private stores mean more underage drinking.
“You keep the enforcement. You’d have sting operations and ABC officers,” Orr said. “With all the convenience stores and the drinks you can get in the grocery store, I don’t buy it.”
The second is state employees. Orr said the bill answers that concern with a gradual wind-down. “That’s what the bill says: phase it out over time,” he said.
He saved the third group for last.
“The landlords get these rich leases. We got about 180 locations. They get rich leases, very lucrative, and they hire lobbyists down in Montgomery to work to kill it,” Orr said. “I mean, if that doesn’t disgust you, I don’t know what will.”
The ABC Board spent $13.2 million on facility rentals, including its stores, in fiscal 2022, according to state spending records. State law requires the board to lease its store locations.
Orr said he expects a Tuberville administration to be receptive, and he is drafting a new version to pre-file ahead of the 2027 session.
“I’m ready to tee it back up,” Orr said. “We can do it the smart way and start winding it up and get the heck out of this competing against the private sector.”
“I’ve been talking a long time, and I don’t like talking; I like doing,” he said. “It’s been a frustrating ride, but I’m certainly committed to it. But it’s amazing the powers that be that try to keep the status quo.”
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
