David versus Goliath

Movement gets underway to deny the 'old' Walmart a liquor license

There's a sort of prohibition movement underway to stop the "old" Walmart in Santa Fe from obtaining a liquor license in a city that has already well exceeded a license quota established under state law by nearly 400 percent.

Adding another big-box liquor license into the mix would only exacerbate the problem in a state whose residents consistently rank among the top 10 in problem drinking, according to the Santa Fe Prevention Alliance, which held a community forum Wednesday night in the Kearny Elementary gym to enlighten residents on Walmart's latest intentions.

The forum comes as the Santa Fe City Council is set to consider Walmart's license request; the state's Alcohol and Gaming Division approved the license last week.

If the council were to approve it, Walmart's liquor license would bring the total number of licenses in the City Different to 129, nearly quadruple the 34 licenses it's supposed to currently have in accordance with the state's Liquor Control Act, passed in 1981.

Under the state's liquor law, jurisdictions across the Land of Enchantment are only allowed 1 license per every 2,000 residents, but a loophole exists: 10 liquor licenses per year can be transferred into any jurisdiction that decided to accept such transfers more than four decades ago when the law was laid out.

Santa Fe was one such city that decided to accept the transfers, which has led to an overabundance of liquor outlets to this day; most of these are what Alcohol and Gaming Division officials call "inter-local transfers."

Purchasing a liquor license can be costly, a sign that there's money to be had in offering packaged liquors for sale. For example, the Supercenter Walmart at the south end of town reportedly paid just over $450,000 for its license, which was approved in the spring of 2011 by the state over the objections of the City Council.

That license, however, was purchased from the Ore House, not from outside of the city's jurisdiction.

"What people don't understand is that Walmart's very marketing scheme is designed around unloading packaged liquors at a low price. It's just what they do," says Maire Claire Voorhees, a communications specialist with the alliance, whose mission is to reduce underage drinking and substance abuse in Santa Fe County.

The Santa Fe Prevention Alliance says problem drinking is rampant not only in Santa Fe County, but also across the state. New Mexico consistently makes the Top 10 lists of underage drinking and alcohol-related deaths.

All of which has led to frequent DWI checkpoints in a state whose landscape is littered with roadside crosses commemorating at least some of those whose deaths came after a sudden screech and then a crash.

Thhose in favor of more liquor outlets in the city compare New Mexico to Colorado and say that the number of liquor licenses, whether over the limit or not, does not necessarily match up to the reality, as the After Hours Alliance points out in a commentary made in response to an SFR story that reported on how the city has exceeded its quota.

Pro-business folks in the city, like Shannon Murphy, a Santa Fe resident, have been trying to get the state to rewrite its liquor laws. They say larger companies like Walmart are squeezing out the mom-and-pop businesses, not only in Santa Fe but across the state.

Few small businesses can afford a liquor license, which can range between $300,000 and $800,000. The demand for them on the open market has driven the prices up as large corporations pull out their pocketbooks and pay steep prices for them, and the state gives the go-ahead.

And this discrepancy in buying power has trickled down to Santa Fe's music scene, where clubs are having a hard time opening up and are shutting down at a rapid clip due to the enormous costs imposed on them just to operate a tiny venue, says Murphy, who chairs the Nighttime Economy Task Force in the City Different.

"And it's not just becoming a critical issue in Santa Fe," says Murphy. "It's happening all over the state in smaller cities, like Silver City or Truth or Consequences as they try to increase tourism but can't afford a liquor license."

So there are two factions at play here: The Santa Fe Prevention Alliance, which would like to reduce the number as a whole, and the likes of Murphy, who'd like to see the prices of the licenses be reduced and more of them issued for smaller businesses.

Both, in any event, oppose Walmart getting its hands on a license but for different reasons, and Walmart's corporate headquarters in Benton, Ark., did not respond to requests for a comment by deadline. Meanwhile, the liquor industry by and large has argued that it’s not the booze that’s killing and causing all the deaths but rather a matter of “personal choice.

Voorhees, with the Prevention Alliance, says personal choice isn't always as free as it would seem, and that opponents fail to take in New Mexico's demographics, among them a great deal of poverty, coupled with Native American populations that have battled alcoholism for centuries.

The City Council vote is unpredictable. Four years ago, in March of 2011, the council denied, by a one-vote margin, the Supercenter Walmart's application for a liquor license.

But the council's contention, that more minors would be able to get their hands on cheap liquor, didn't hold up under the scrutiny of the state's Alcohol and Gaming Division, and its director at the time,  Gary Tomada, single-handedly reversed the city's decision, placing the liquor license square in the hands of the then-new Walmart.

Yet the state's decision to nullify the city's decision isn't the first time that the governing board has lost a battle with the liquor industry.

Just a few weeks ago, a judge in state district court in Santa Fe struck down the city's ban on sales of miniature bottles of booze within the city proper, saying it unfairly singled out liquor stores by restricting a specific product. Liquor store owners through their attorneys said the ban carried prohibition undertones under the guise of keeping litter in the city at a minimum.

Judge Sarah Singleton ultimately sided with the liquor stores, whose attorneys argued that the state's Liquor Control Act didn't expressly prohibit the sales of the tiny plastic bottles, that the council had overstepped its boundaries when the ban was approved in the spring; it had been scheduled to take effect the very day after the court hearing.

It promises to be interesting to see what occurs when the council next votes on the matter. At the meeting held Wednesday night, the alliance pointed out to the audience that local cops have had to respond more than 2,000 times to the old Walmart in the last two years.

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