SPRINGDALE — Voters in Springdale and Tontitown will decide in November if people on their way home from church Sunday can pick up a six-pack before watching a football game.
Ballots in both towns will include a proposal to allow off-premise sales of alcohol on Sunday. Each town’s proposal includes the sale of beer, wine and liquor from those businesses that hold off-premise alcohol licenses from the state. Those businesses could include liquor, convenience, grocery and drug stores.
Jim Phillips, president of the Springdale Liquor Association, headed the successful petition drive to have Sunday liquor placed on the ballot in Springdale. Phillips’ family owns all but one of the liquor stores in the city. The petition drive began after a vote was set to allow retail sale of alcohol in Benton County, Phillips said.
Organizers of the Springdale measure believe that liquor sales will drop in Washington County if liquor retailers open up in Benton County. The Benton County measure would not allow alcohol sales on Sunday. Sunday sales would give an advantage for liquor retailers in Springdale and might increase overall sales, supporters said.
By The Numbers
Sales Tax Collections
Collections for the last six years on all purchases. City sales tax only.
Year Springdale Tontitown
2006 $12.48 million $1.49 million
2007 $11.60 million $1.25 million
2008 $10.51 million $1.08 million
2009 $9.81 million $1.01 million
2010 $9.61 million $1.10 million
2011 $9.95 million $1.08 million
Source: Individual Cities
“I think Benton County will vote for alcohol,” Phillips said. “That will have a big impact on Springdale taxes.”
Springdale receives sales taxes from purchases of alcohol that end up consumed in Benton County.
“Sunday sales wouldn’t make up for the loss of those sales, but it would help. It would be good for liquor stores and good for Springdale, too,” Phillips said.
Sales from liquor stores within a city are tracked by the state, which regulates alcohol sales. Springdale does not have an up-to-date number for the financial impact of the liquor business, said Wyman Morgan, Springdale director of administration and financial affairs.
“It takes a long time to get them,” Morgan said of the figures. “The last number we have is $25 million in sales during 2006.”
There is no way to determine the portion of those sales paid by Benton County residents, Morgan said. The high-water mark for Springdale sales tax collections in all categories was in 2006, he said. The city currently levies a 2 percent sales tax rate.
Large liquor stores catering to Benton County locate near the county lines in Springdale in the south and the Missouri border to the north. Alcohol is served only in private clubs in Benton County. Those clubs must purchase the alcohol sold there from Arkansas liquor stores.
John Reddish, a Springdale businessman, said he supports Sunday sales even though he doesn’t drink.
“People in Springdale need to wake up,” Reddish said. “The city needs help with economic development. We’re lagging behind all the other cities. We don’t need to say ‘no’ to anything that will bring money into the city.”
Micah Thompson, a Springdale resident, said tax revenue will go elsewhere if voters reject Sunday sales.
“We shouldn’t lose this revenue just because it comes on Sunday,” he said.
The potential for increased sales tax revenue also motivated the Sunday sales petition in Tontitown, said Mayor Tommy Granata. The petition drive began before Springdale’s, he said.
“People will go somewhere to get their liquor on Sunday,” Granata said. “The money it would bring in would help Tontitown.”
Tontitown has two liquor stores, Granata said, and two or three convenience stores that sell beer and wine.
Madison County, to the east of Springdale, also is a dry county where petitions have put legalizing alcohol sales on the ballot, Phillips said. “That will also have some impact on Springdale’s revenue,” he said.
Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse said he is opposed to selling alcohol on Sunday as a personal issue.
“It’s on the ballot, though, and we’ll let the people decide,” he said.
The idea Springdale will keep some revenue if it passes Sunday sales is an assumption, Sprouse said.
“I think if Benton County goes wet, it will have an impact on our revenues. I’m not sure if Sunday sales will help that much, if at all,” he said.
The sale of alcohol on Sundays is not widespread across the state, said Michael Langley, director of the Arkansas Alcohol Beverage Control administration. If approved, Springdale would be the largest city in the state with Sunday retail sales, he said.
“The largest now is Eureka Springs,” Langley said. “All the rest are smaller towns.”
Those include Altus, Pyatt, Norfork and a couple of small north-central Arkansas communities with only one alcohol outlet, Langley said.
“Everybody is going further now to chase a buck,” Granata said. “Even cities.”
Not everyone who signed a petition to put Sunday sales before the voters supports passage.
“Just because you signed the petition, it doesn’t mean you’ll vote for it,” said Winfred Phillips, retired Arkansas State Police director and Springdale resident. “I usually sign petitions just to let people vote.” Winfred Phillips is not related to Jim Phillips.
Perry Webb, Springdale Chamber of Commerce president, said he doesn’t know if the measure will pass. He expects the sales tax impact on Springdale, if Benton County should go wet, would be large.
“I can also understand why some people would like to have any revenue source they can to make up for that loss,” he said.
Some people will decide Sunday sales on moral grounds, Webb said.
“Springdale has a history of a lot of church-going residents,” he said. “I can understand that they would prefer that alcohol not be sold on Sunday.”
Several people said they thought Sunday liquor sales would have a better chance to pass in Tontitown than Springdale because of religion-based opposition in Springdale. Tontitown began after several Catholic native Italian families relocated from south Arkansas, according to the Tontitown Historical Museum website, which said that wine making was an important part of the culture and commerce of the town. A winery operates in the city.
“I think it will be close in Tontitown,” Granata said. “I have had more calls for it than against it.”
Convenience stores in Washington County were approved to sell beer and wine for the first time last year, Jim Phillips said.
If Benton and Madison counties approve alcohol sales, additional liquor stores would be added: 55 in Benton County and three in Madison County, Langley said. An additional 11 liquor store permits would be available in Washington County, he said, due to growth between the 2000 and the 2010 U.S. Census.
“That’s an additional 69 liquor stores in Northwest Arkansas,” he said. “That would be adding 15 percent to the number of liquor stores statewide.”
If Benton County approves alcohol sales, the process to open liquor stores will take about six months, Langley said.
“Springdale will keep getting those Benton County sales that long in 2013,” Langley said.