Benton County voters will decide the most interesting of local ballot issues for the Nov. 6 general election - the first wet-dry issue to reach voters in decades.

The last opportunity the county’s voters had to consider the question was in 1944, largely because the process for getting the issue to the ballot was made so diftcult other attempts have failed even to get a wet-dry vote, much less a successful one.

The requirement to put such an issue on the ballot requires an enormous number of signatures on petitions. The required threshold is 38 percent of a county’s registered voters.

In Benton County, where more than 111,000 people register to vote, that’s a high bar. The actual number of signatures required this year was 41,171, which the petitioners beat by a couple of thousand names.

Keep Dollars in Benton County, the organization created to push for the vote,submitted 43,307 signatures that were validated by the Benton County Clerk’s Oftce back in August.

Assuming those people, or most of them, turn out to vote favorably for the measure, the question should pass easily. The hard part was collecting so many signatures.

The diff erence this year over past efforts is wellheeled backers, including Steuart and Tom Walton, put enough money into the petition drive to be successful. They also backed up the eff ort with research to show approval of the measure would have a signifi cant economic impact in the county, which now loses business toneighboring Washington County and to other states.

University of Arkansas researchers put the economic impact at more than $33 million, if the sale and manufacture of alcohol is allowed within Benton County. The county is already known as the state’s “wettest dry county” because of the proliferation of private clubs that may sell alcoholic beverages. It is retail sale that is prohibited now.

Related issues will be on the ballot in Springdale and Tontitown where petitioners submitted signatures to put a different question to voters. The issue in those cities is retail sale of liquor on Sunday.

The idea is to keep people who now drive past those cities to fi nd package stores to buy alcohol on Sunday, often in Oklahoma or Missouri, to be able to make their purchases in Springdale and Tontitown.

Jim Phillips, who owns several liquor stores in Springdale, promoted the idea as a counter to thelikelihood Benton County will go wet and sap business from Springdale. He sees Sunday sales as a way to replace revenue that might be lost.

At least it would help until Benton County cities authorize Sunday sales themselves, a likely followup if the wet-dry vote passes this year.

For the record, the availability of liquor in Benton County won’t just hit the Springdale businesses. It will impact sales tax collections for that city and for any other places that lose alcohol sales to Benton County merchants.

Although Sunday sales in Springdale and Tontitown might offset some of the loss, dips in sales tax receipts from several Washington County outlets should be anticipated.

That is, of course, if Benton County voters take this rare opportunity for a wet-dry vote and allow alcohol sales there.

BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST.

Opinion, Pages 12 on 10/21/2012