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March 13, 2010

Too tough to tell

East Texas cities describe life after alcohol elections

Nathan Straus CNHI

JACKSONVILLE — Mapping out the precise effect of alcohol sales on a city’s crime or economic status is an incredibly difficult to impossible ordeal, city officials from a variety of East Texas cities agreed.

Corsicana City Manager Connie Standridge said the city’s sales tax is not broken down in such a way as to identify how much of the revenue comes from alcohol sales.

“There’s no way to tell, for example, how much Walmart sells,” Standridge said. “Statewide, vendors do not break out the sale of alcohol.”

She said the city has budgeted $1,500 a year for off-premises consumption and $1,500 more from restaurants, in addition to a larger $30,000 allotment which represents tax paid to the state for the purchase of any mixed drink.

“This goes to the general revenue fund,” she said.

Standridge said much of this goes to projects like public safety and street maintenance.

She also said the city’s sales tax revenue has been up since 2005; alcohol sales were legalized in Corsicana in 2004, she said. The total was $4.5 million in 2005, and in 2009 it was $5 million.

“I could not make the statement that all of that is attributed to alcohol,” she said.

Rusk legalized alcohol sales within the city last year. City Manager Mike Murray said though the city’s sales tax numbers have seen a rising trend over the course of the past few years, it’s difficult to attribute any of it to alcohol sales.

“I would imagine any time a new product is sold you have to factor it in,” he said.

Murray said an extra $50,000 was put into the city’s most recent budget, but added this would be either partially or entirely present had alcohol sales not passed in the polls.

“Sales tax revenue could have continued to rise or gone down just as easily,” he said of the possibility of alcohol sales influencing the city’s economy.

Winona city officials said because the city of Winona legalized alcohol sales in late 2009, it’s still too early to comment on how alcohol sales might affect the local economy.

According to the state comptroller Web site, Winona’s current sales tax allocations stand at a 150.6 percent increase in March, 2010, compared to March, 2009; $6,201.25 against $2,474.52. To date the city has increased by 57.31 percent to represent a former number of $7,123.21 compared to the current number of $11,205.54.

Though it’s hard to call whether alcohol shifts city revenue one way or the other, Rusk Police Department Assistant Chief Roy Cavazoz said Rusk has not seen an increase in alcohol-related crime since the city went wet.

“We haven’t had enough time to see a trend,” Cavazoz said. “It seems to have stayed about the same.”

He added calls for people driving while intoxicated may have actually gone down a small amount due to closer proximity of alcohol providers, but also said he hasn’t seen much of a change in anything.

Corsicana Police Chief Randy Bratton said it’s difficult to tell whether alcohol has any bearing on crime rates.

“I don’t think there’s any way to isolate it,” he said.

Bratton said the city’s crime rate, however, is at its lowest in 30 years, with high profile crimes like sexual assaults down five or so percent from last year.

He also said the city has emphasized DWI enforcement since 2009 and arrests went up significantly.

Winona Police Chief Robert Tapley could not be reached for comment Thursday or Friday afternoons.

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