Liquor and the Law

Gov. Baldacci is determined to get the state out of the liquor business, a long-anticipated and overdue exit now made necessary by Maine’s $1.2-billion budget deficit. His determination to get the state, at least to a substantial degree, out of the liquor-law enforcement business is more of a surprise, a money-saving proposition that carries with it significant risk.

Eliminating the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement, a division of the Department of Public Safety, will save $1.6 million. This puts but a small dent in a big deficit, but small dents accumulate. This also wipes out 16 jobs devoted to the enforcement of liquor laws – 13 field officers and three administrators – and shifts that responsibility to local police. With local police already understaffed and overburdened, and with local budgets strained just as is the state’s, the risk is that this shift in enforcement will result in little enforcement at all.

Or, rather, less than the little the bureau was able to provide. Maine has more than 2,000 establishments that sell alcoholic beverages to go; more than 4,000 when establishments that sell on-premises are added in. The primary concern must be preventing sales to minors; 13 field officers simply are not enough given the number of outlets and the size of the state. In a recent compliance check by the bureau of package stores, 71 out of 260 failed to even ask underage customers for the required identification. That is, 27 percent failed to do the bare minimum.

Part of the reason for this failure rate may be that bureau officers had more to do than just enforce compliance with this most fundamental of liquor laws. With the state in the retail and wholesale liquor business, these agents also were charged with checking compliance with laws and regulations that had much more to do with marketing than with public safety. Ideally, these officers should be given some time to prove the worth of dedicated enforcement, without the marketing burden, before a decision is made to eliminate their jobs. The circumstances – that budget deficit – make the ideal largely wishful thinking.

If local police are to take on sole responsibility for liquor-law enforcement, they will need one thing Augusta can provide at no additional cost to taxpayers – tougher liquor laws. Currently, selling liquor to a minor is a Class E offense, the lowest level of misdemeanor on the books. The fine can be as low as $50, the license suspension can be a mere warning. This crime, whether committed as the result of just carelessness or blatant greed, deserves a penalty that rises above the cost of doing business.

Along with supporting – better still, proposing – tougher laws, the governor must develop a way to measure the effectiveness of local police as the sole enforcers of liquor laws. The rate of underage offenses involving alcohol – such as disorderly conduct, vandalism, drunk driving – must be closely monitored, local data must be collected at the state level and any increase must produce a strong response. This shift in enforcement responsibility may be a risk, but it need not be an uncalculated one.