In Texas, Drinking Is A Complicated Chore

Here in the Geezer Capital of Texas, a great many non-Texans express disdain for the bizarre nature of alcoholic beverage regulation in the Lone Star State. Between 1920-1971, Texas was a brown-bag state. Bars were forced to masquerade as private clubs. Vestiges of the brown-bag, private club tradition still abide in Williamson County (like many other counties) to the consternation of the geezers. The article about Texas liquor laws and the liquor enforcement agency mentions one of the more bizarre applications of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code: the strip in Lubbock, TX. Here is a college town of 200,000+ and the sole place to buy liquor in Lubbock County is a stretch of highway connecting Lubbock and Tahoka to the south. The Strip (as known to locals) is a row of liquor stores on the east side of the highway. Approximately a dozen liquor stores populate The Strip about 2 miles south of the Lubbock city limits. Students from Texas Technique and Lubbock locals fill the Tahoka highway on Friday and Saturday nights. The traffic is hazardous and the Tahoka highway in the area of The Strip is limited access and the exits and entrances are not convenient to the liquor stores. Why? The Southern Baptists and the Campbellites (Church of Christ) did everything in their power to influence the provisions for the sale of alcoholic beverages in Lubbock County. So, The Strip is Lubbock's equivalent of La Zona Roja in a Mexican border town. The result of this anti-liquor zoning is that consumption of alcoholic beverages is virtually unknown in Lubbock County. It would be worse for the geezers in Williamson County. They could be in Lubbock. If this is (fair & balanced) hypocrisy, so be it.

[x Austin Fishwrap]
TEXAS ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE COMMISSION
Liquor agency, born during Prohibition, may get update
Sunset Commission report recommends changes to complex, unwieldy code.
By Mike Ward

Once upon a time, when Prohibition had just ended and the fear of mobsters like Al Capone was more than just a movie plot line, Texans got a new law designed to let them have that long-awaited legal sip of beer or liquor.

The new freedom was tightly regulated. Breweries and distillers could not sell directly to retailers or own saloons or package stores. Retailers could sell only during certain hours and at certain locations. Even the posters in the bathrooms would become subject to regulation.

In some respects, not much in Texas has changed since those days in 1935.

Next spring, the Legislature is expected to consider changes to the arcane Alcoholic Beverage Code, prompted by a recent legislative report that said the law was outdated, the industry overregulated and the rules too complicated for even its enforcers to clearly understand. The code was last rewritten in the 1970s.

The result of the outdated code, critics say, is that resources are being wasted on unneeded regulatory activities and could be better spent on public safety issues such as discouraging drunken driving and increasing enforcement against underage drinking and alcohol sales to minors.

But changes may not be easy, officials and lobbyists with ties to the issue concede, because the law regulates some of Texas' most politically potent special interests, with millions of dollars at stake. From mom-and-pop package stores to big-name wholesalers to national retailers — all could be affected.

"It was a great law in 1935, but it has been patched and added to over the years, and today we have an act that no one really understands," said Allen "Bud" Shivers Jr., an Austin businessman who served for more than nine years on the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, six as chairman. "It is time to totally rewrite the code."

Shiver's father, former Gov. Allan Shivers, helped write the law in 1935 as a state senator.

Officials at the commission, with 515 employees and a $25.2 million annual budget, say they would welcome some changes.

"The code is a very complicated document. I've heard people compare it to the tax code," said Jeannene Fox, assistant administrator of the agency. "We would like something that is simpler and easier. It would make our jobs easier."

For others, simpler and easier might not be enough.

"Texas is living in the Dark Ages in regulating this industry," said Kirk Brown, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving's Brazos Valley Chapter. "When you look at the mishmash we have now, you get the feeling that the best thing to do would be to throw it all out and start over."

The Sunset Advisory Commission, a legislative panel that reviews state agencies, issued a report in October that recommended eliminating restrictions on the size of beer containers, doing away with state testing of liquor and wine, focusing enforcement on activities to protect public safety, allowing distributors to report delinquent accounts electronically and streamlining other functions.

"TABC's statutory mission is outdated, and the agency lacks a comprehensive process for planning its activities statewide and measuring its progress toward achieving its goals," the report states. "Enforcement efforts are not prioritized to focus on problems posing the greatest risk to public safety, and the agency fails to provide consistent and predictable penalties for violations."

For those regulated, the law's complexity can mean unintentionally running afoul of regulators and facing hefty fines. For regulators, it can mean uneven enforcement and dealing with expensive lawsuits. And for average Texans, it can mean prices stay high and competition is inhibited.

Eight retailers and wholesalers complained to the American-Statesman that the code is too old, too complex and too outdated. But none wanted to be quoted, fearing reprisals for speaking out.

"Everything is in there for a reason. Maybe it could be arranged better, but there have been numerous changes over the years to get what we have today," said Robert Sparks, lobbyist for Licensed Beverage Distributors. "This is a highly regulated industry at both the federal and state level: highly regulated and highly taxed. That's why it's as complex as it is. A simple law would not work."

Even so, Sparks said his group generally supports the recommended changes, though not a complete overhaul.

One insider who has worked in and around the industry for 20 years explained the resistance to an overhaul: "If you'd spent years getting all the tweaks in the law that you wanted, to offset all the tweaks that everyone else got in, would you really want to see everything changed? No."

When the Liquor Control Board was established in November 1935, the goal was to protect the "welfare, heath, peace, safety, temperance and safety of the people." With that came the "three-tier law" that prohibits brewers and distillers from owning wholesalers or retailers, provisions that required retailers to sometimes pay cash, and myriad other rules regulating everything from the size of signs to clocks over pool tables.

Add to that the complex licensing rules that allowed local precincts to determine whether they would remain "dry" or go "wet." In places like Lubbock, that meant that all the package stores were in one neighborhood.

"The joke among the enforcement agents," Shivers recalled, "used to be that when they'd leave the office, they'd say: Gun. Check. Radio. Check. Handcuffs. Check. Measuring tape. Check."

Dozens of different types of permits were required.

In recent years, the Texas laws and those in other states have come under increasing criticism as retailing giants, such as Wal-Mart, and large grocery chains push to buy directly from manufacturers. Large manufacturers have successfully amended the Texas law to allow them to conduct contests at retail locations and to own an interest in venues such as Sea World, where vendors sell beer.

Even before the sunset commission report was completed, there were calls to streamline and simplify Texas' code.

"The Legislature needs to reform the whole concept of alcohol regulation," Brown said. "The current code is not what the public wants or needs."

Alcoholic beverage regulation in Texas [Timeline]

1836: Republic of Texas imposes the first taxes on distilled spirits and malt beverages.
1920: Prohibition begins in United States.
1933: Prohibition ends, allowing individual states to regulate alcoholic beverages.
1935: Legislature creates the Liquor Control Board. Individual communities are authorized to hold local-option elections to determine what kind of alcohol, if any, can be sold in their areas.
1961: Permits are approved for private clubs, where members can bring their own bottles.
1970: Liquor Control Board becomes the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
1971: Legislature creates a mixed-drink permit to allow the sale of liquor by the drink.
1986: In response to federal highway funding sanctions, the Legislature raises the legal drinking age to 21 from 18.
1994: Legislature transfers some responsibility to other agencies: Bingo enforcement goes to the Lottery Commission and collection of the mixed beverage gross receipts tax goes to the Comptroller's Office.

Source: Sunset Advisory Commission staff report, October 2004

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