Batt Balks At Plans For Liquor Stores Governor Issues Moratorium After Cda Resort’s Request Prompts Similar Applications

Gov. Phil Batt has slapped a moratorium on new liquor stores in Idaho after a rash of criticism of plans for a store inside The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

During a public comment period on the resort’s proposal, the state liquor dispensary received up to 30 calls, “all negative,” said dispensary superintendent H. Dean Summers.

“Most of them were, ‘Why can’t I get one?”’ Summers said Thursday.

Since the resort made its application, Templin’s Resort in Post Falls has requested and been sent application materials for a similar store, and a Coeur d’Alene pool hall has inquired about starting one.

“It’s unprecedented, basically,” said the governor’s spokeswoman, Amy Kleiner. “They just need to have some time to step back and review whether or not the state wants to break into that ground.”

The Coeur d’Alene Resort application came under the state liquor dispensary’s “retailer” program, which was launched three years ago. That program is designed to switch the state’s contract liquor stores, at which the state basically places the liquor on consignment, to a new arrangement under which the retail store owner buys the inventory from the state.

Existing contract stores aren’t required to change to the new arrangement unless they sell.

But the new program hasn’t been limited to existing stores. Four new ones have been approved, including one in Oldtown and one that’s due to be constructed at Highway 41 and Mullan Avenue in Post Falls.

People who operate state-owned and contract liquor stores throughout Idaho have objected to the retailer program, saying it not only will cut into their business but also will make liquor more widely available and less controlled.

“It’s questionable legally and it’s questionable every other way,” said Rita Blewett, secretary of the United Liquor Contractors of Idaho and operator of the contract store in Kendrick.

Blewett is afraid the retailer program will mean the demise of smalltown stores.

“I don’t believe that Idaho has chosen to be a privatized state,” Blewett said. “If I’m wrong, they should move to amend our Constitution and make it so everyone can compete on a fair and even field, instead of penalizing small towns.”

Mary Stirn, manager of the state liquor store on Northwest Boulevard in Coeur d’Alene, said she worries about control. An underage customer once offered one of her clerks $50 to sell to him.

Stirn called the police. But a lowpaid employee of a private business might be tempted, she said.

Coeur d’Alene Resort officials were unavailable for comment Thursday. They applied to sell liquor from a gift shop in the Resort Shopping Plaza on Sherman Avenue, but liquor officials approved only a shop inside the hotel.

The shop would sell high-end liquor.

Jerry Jaeger, president and coowner of Hagadone Hospitality, said in an earlier published report, “We’re not doing it for profit motive; we’re doing it because guests need that service advantage.”

Bob Templin, owner of Templin’s Resort, said he thought the resort had the right idea. “I’m sure they had good reason to make the application,” he said. “They’re very close to the needs of the visitors and convention people.”

“Many states … have it readily available for people to purchase,” Templin said, adding that he favors privatizing the sale of liquor in Idaho.

PJ Jennings, owner of Paddy’s pool hall and tavern on Appleway Avenue, said his interest is the same as the resorts. “We have four motels surrounding us,” he said. “We have a lot of requests in the summertime for alcohol stores.”

State liquor stores tend to close early, Jennings said, and travelers often don’t arrive at their motels until after the liquor stores are closed.

Jennings’s dad, Pat Jennings, who is selling the tavern to his son, said, “I’m from Montana originally, and … over there, they sell liquor by the bottle right there in the bar, you know, to go. All of them have a small cabinet, they sell half pints, pints, quarts.”

“There’s no reason the state should be in the liquor business anyway,” he said.

The retailer program was criticized in a taxpayer-funded management audit of the state liquor dispensary last year as “lack(ing) business planning and financial analysis.”

But the management audit also recommended reducing what it called “excessive inventory levels.”

Summers, the head of the dispensary, says the beauty of the retailer program is that it could ultimately free up more than $1 million the state now has tied up in inventory.

“It’s a philosophic thing,” he said. “Some people think that the state should not have their money tied up in a product like alcohol when that money could go directly to cities and counties.”

Last year, the liquor dispensary turned over $23 million to Idaho’s cities and counties.

“There’s no question that the liquor dispensary has been extremely profitable,” said Kleiner, the governor’s spokeswoman.

The governor’s moratorium doesn’t necessarily mean the resort’s pending application will be denied, Kleiner said. “What he wants is time to go back and do it in a methodical manner.” Batt wants to look into “whether or not that’s something the dispensary should be doing.”