By Brian Porter | Rocky Mountain Voice
A measure to restrict state-issued licensing of liquor-licensed drugstores to the 36 which already have one has been passed out of the Colorado Senate and is on its way to the House.
Senate Bill 25-033, by Democrat Sens. Judy Amabile and Dylan Roberts, is essentially a protectionist bill, El Paso Republican Sen. Larry Liston said, preventing the future sale of a locally-owned store to large grocers.
“Should this bill pass, there will be no more buyouts,” he predicts. “Their ability to have a King Soopers or a Safeway come in and say, ‘here’s a million for your business,’ that will no longer happen.”
Liston was joined by three Republicans and a Democrat in opposition to the bill, which was also run with some differences last session. It passed the Senate this time by a 28-5 vote.
“Their businesses have been greatly devalued,” Amabile responded, relating the harm to a voter-approved measure allowing grocers to sell wine.
Lisa Frizell, R-Castle Rock, supported SB 33 as a compromise to the prior session’s bill.
“No one is losing their investment,” she said.
Added Northern Colorado Democrat Sen. Mike Weissman, “If you were opposed to last year’s bill, I don’t think you have to be this year.”
In his Adams and Arapahoe County district, Weissman notes “a ton of small liquor stores” are in operation by immigrant families. In Douglas County, Frizell has noted specifically one liquor store competing well with a large grocer.
That is precisely to Liston’s point. There are 1,587 stand-alone liquor stores in operation in Colorado, he says, and very few which have failed.
“It’s not like the liquor stores are going out of business left and right,” Liston said. “The reality is they are not.”
He called it protectionist, favoring one business over another.
“If we’re here to protect one business from another, we’re headed down that slippery slope,” Liston said.