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After plans for a new Alcoholic Beverage Control warehouse stalled last month due to disagreements over how to build it, the commission’s top official is insistent that the state still needs the facility.
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ABC Commission Chairman Hank Bauer told The News & Observer on Wednesday that he was disappointed in the North Carolina General Assembly for not passing a version of the bill that would have given the ABC Commission the authority to take out a $310 million loan to build the warehouse.
Leaders of the state House of Representatives disagree with that plan.
House Bill 198 originated in the House last year with a provision that would have made tweaks to the way Alcohol Law Enforcement electronically notifies a permit holder that they’ve made a violation.
The bill made its way over to the state Senate and in May of this year was gutted and amended to be an ABC omnibus bill that would make several changes to the state’s liquor laws, including authorizing the ABC Commission to take out a loan for the warehouse construction.
Bauer said the Senate’s version had a lot of good provisions, particularly authorizing the loan for the warehouse.
“There wasn’t a lot put in there that would be controversial so it could go through and we could get the warehouse done,” he said. “I mean, we’re ready to go. The governor’s office has approved us to take the loan.”
Bauer reaffirmed his aversion to exploring a public-private partnership for the deal.
Such a partnership would “cost the state double what (a loan) would cost us, and we wouldn’t own it,” Bauer said.
Republican leadership in the state Senate has also expressed disinterest in a public-private option.
The ABC Commission oversees administration of the existing 200,000-square foot warehouse in Raleigh, “which is responsible for the receipt, storage and distribution of spirituous liquors,” according to the commission.
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Bauer said the new warehouse is “greatly needed.”
“We’re only filling 92% of the [local ABC] boards’ orders because we’re working out of that building that’s over there that’s 42 years old,” he said. “It’s costing the state $132 million in shipments and another $40 million to the general fund.”
Bauer said the loan option would be covered by existing liquor permit fees, and that “there’s going to be no tax dollars going to the building.”
“It’s a no-brainer, and it just generates more revenue for our state,” he said.
Rep. Brenden Jones, a Columbus County Republican, pushed for a public-private partnership when a different bill governing building construction was on the House floor last year, The N&O previously reported.
He urged his fellow lawmakers to vote for an amendment that would allow the ABC Commission to enter into that kind of partnership through purchase or a lease and told his colleagues that Bauer had asked for the amendment.
Records requested by The N&O show that the ABC Commission favored a $310 million loan to build a new complex with an automated warehouse, rather than a public-private option. Bauer has said that the public-private partnership was a “horrible” idea, and that Bauer had never asked for the amendment, The N&O previously reported.
Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger said the House and Senate’s difference of opinion on the public-private partnership was the reason for not passing an ABC bill this time around.
“I don’t want to disparage public-private partnerships in general, but I think there was so much going on with that particular proposal that it’s not something that we should go further on,” he previously told The N&O.
Demi Dowdy, spokesperson for Republican House Speaker Destin Hall, has said that there were other disagreements between the chambers, including over a provision that would have allowed canned cocktails to be sold just as beer and wine is, that stalled the sweeping liquor bill.
“The Speaker is unconvinced we need a new warehouse at all,” she previously told The N&O. “Even if he did think that we need a new warehouse, there aren’t funds available to pay for either the ABC Commissioner’s idea or the public private partnership idea. [Hall] does not currently favor either proposal.”
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