SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Three branches of government.
Three proposals.
No compromise.
So, exactly what is the future of alcohol in Utah?
From leaving it alone to blowing it up, there are now three different plans for the future of Utah's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
The two branches of government involved are the Executive and Legislative (governor and legislature).
But alcohol is such a controversial issue; even the legislative branch is split in two.
The one thing those in the capitol agree on is that the DABC must change.
This is because of months of bad DABC headlines; missing money, booze that wasn’t paid for until months later, possible criminal charges.
The sponsor of the legislature’s DABC bill, Senator John Valentine, told ABC 4,
"We do need to have structural changes. The governor has said it. I am saying it and the house is saying it as well."
But what the governor, the senate and the house are not saying is - that they have agreement on one plan.
As Valentine explained,
"It's not an easy negotiation."
The bill's sponsor tells ABC 4 there are now three different plans dealing with the DABC's future:
1) Move it to the Commerce Department
2) Keep it independent, but with more oversight
3) Blow it up - putting different parts of the DABC into different parts of state government.
When we asked Senator Valentine which plan was going to emerge, he said,
"No one knows how a negotiation is going to end and that's why it's truly a negotiation."
Now, ABC 4 is also being told that all major alcohol stakeholders have been involved in discussions, likely including the LDS Church.
In addition, Valentine confirmed that yes, to some degree, the issue of privatization has come up.
As he put it to us:
"They have come up in the discussions but we haven't had any agreement on privatization at all."
Now, ABC 4 did ask the LDS Church for a comment and, late Monday afternoon, we received the following statement from
a LDS Church spokesman:
"The Church is reserving public comment about the DABC legislative proposals until the complex issues surrounding this
matter are more thoroughly examined."
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