Christian Action Commission

Should liquor be legalized in Flowood, MS?

There’s been much debate about whether or not voters in the City of Flowood should have the right to vote on legalizing liquor sales in the city limits - despite the fact that Rankin County as a whole has voted it down in the past. 

Several have weighed in on this issue including Flowood Mayor Gary Rhoads.  The Clarion Ledger article “Debate spirited on Rankin liquor sales” (January 27, 2009) cites Mayor Gary Rhoads as saying, “It blows my mind,” said Flowood Mayor Gary Rhoads, who favors the bill and is mystified by the opposition’s logic.  “Do folks think people aren’t drinking over here already?” he said.  “The sad thing is, in 2008, I lost 11 restaurants that were doing business here.  When customers couldn’t bring in a bottle of wine, they turned around and didn’t come back.  The restaurants shut their doors.”

From the mayor’s statement the implication is that all 11 closed for this reason.  Curious about those 11 restaurants Mayor Rhoad’s office was contacted on the afternoon of January 27th to clarify this statement.  When contacted, a woman in his office said yes, 11 restaurants had closed.  She listed some of them-----Olga’s, Ryans, Obie’s, Stix, and she said Up the Creek is saying they are going to close.

It was brought to her attention that Stix closed because of an immigration problem, and she agreed with that.  Later she was asked how many restaurants have opened and what was the net gain. She said there had been no gain. It was mentioned the unlikelihood of all 11 restaurants closing due to the inability to legally sell liquor.  She said 5 of them closed for that reason.

Over three years ago in the Rankin County News (p.10, Sect. B, Oct. 26, 2005), the headlines read, “Sales at Flowood Restaurants at Top Nationally.” The first paragraph states: “It wasn’t supposed to happen.  Rankin Countians had long been told by proponents of legalized liquor that few restaurants would open in the county unless citizens voted in the happy hour to make them profitable.”

The article goes on to say that “Dogwood Festival, Dogwood Promenade, and Lakeland Commons were built to pursue a lucrative family-based retail market and those areas were enjoying smashing success stories.” Logan’s restaurant was highlighted as consistently being first or second in weekly sales increases among 135 Logan’s nationwide.

Mayor Gary Rhoads was quoted in this article saying, “Maybe some restaurants which tell us they can’t make it without liquor can look at Logan’s.  When I ride around Flowood, every one of their parking lots look slam full.  I can’t recall any restaurants bigger than a hole-in-the-wall which have closed in my 15 years as mayor.” Has Mayor Rhoads had a change in attitude in favor of legalized liquor in Flowood?

Now Mayor Rhoads says he is being misunderstood in the debate over legalization of liquor (by Bert Case, WLBT, Jan. 27).  Now the mayor says he is neither for nor against legalization of liquor and that he just wants the citizens of his city to have the right to vote on the question.

The citizens of Flowood have already voted on this issue and legalized liquor has been repeatedly voted down.  It begs the question as to why the mayor would want another vote if he is impartial to Flowood’s alcohol status since liquor has been repeatedly voted down in years past.

The argument is that Flowood is losing potential tax revenue on liquor sales to other counties, and if liquor is legalized then Flowood’s tax revenue will go up.  Those who favor legalized liquor seek to do this by circumventing or going around the will of Rankin County voters.  They seek to do this by calling state legislators to pass a bill (e.g. HB 1441) that could legalize liquor sales in Flowood (and other areas) in spite of how Flowood and Rankin County voters voted liquor down in the past. 

Legislators forcing this issue and taking this route is in direct opposition to the will of the people of Rankin County.  America is a democracy where the political power of those who govern is derived from the consent of the governed.  When MS Legislators (like House Republican Lester Carpenter from Alcorn/Tisamingo) govern against the consent of the Mississippi voters they are usurping the will of the people, and the political process in this instance is no longer based upon the consent of the governed but upon the divine right of kings. We as Americans fought against this type of political ideology - known as colonialism - in what history calls the American Revolution.

Several bills have been proposed and have died, but there is legislation like House Bill 1441 that needs to be voted down.  Even if this one dies in committee or on the floor this would be no guarantee that more like it would not follow.

As for the argument that Flowood is losing sales tax revenue in potential liquor sales, a ten-year comparison of Hinds, Madison and Rankin counties regarding food and beverages for 1998-2007 indicates Flowood as performing quite well.

Since 1966 residents in Rankin County (and Flowood is in Rankin County) have voted EIGHT TIMES to keep their county dry.  The last vote was in 2004, and voters overwhelmingly (60%) chose to keep Rankin County dry.  How many times do Rankin County voters have to vote to say to state legislators that they do not want legalized liquor?  Obviously legislators, like Rep. Carpenter, appear not to be concerned about the will of the people, but possibly concerned about their own will at least - or someone else’s at most.

Added 2/18/09:

2004 Liquor Referendum show Pearl and Flowood against legalized liquor (Download Here)

To keep informed on this legislation and others like it visit www.christianaction.com

To help clarify the alcohol and liquor issue in the State of Mississippi, it is important to know that in a dry area alcohol and liquor is first illegal and then made legal by at least two ways.

1.  Voters in an area vote it in. But if you don’t want alcohol/liquor in an area, then don’t ask for the chance to vote it out.  If the area is already dry, then alcohol/liquor is already illegal.  Bringing alcohol/liquor to a vote only increases the chance of these substances being legalized in an area.  (There is one exception when voting on alcohol/liquor may be advantageous and is related to #2 below.)

2. The MS Legislature designates an area with “Resort Status” which makes alcohol/liquor sales legal in that area.  This is done with out the consent of the resident voters in that area.  It does not matter what the will of the people are in the area or if the area has repeatedly voted alcohol/liquor down in the past. 

If a bill in the MS Legislature designates an area with “Resort Status” which would legalize alcohol/liquor, then there are at least two ways to prevent this from happening.  (1) Cause the bill to die by contacting and persuading enough MS Legislators to vote against the bill.  (2) Persuade legislators to give the voters in the area of concern the right to vote on the issue.  Of course, as mentioned above in #1, voting gives legalization of alcohol/liquor a chance, but this opportunity is better than no opportunity at all.

Here’s a related article recently published in the Clarion Ledger on 1/11/09 http://www.christianaction.com/index.php/issues/article/another_call_likely_for_flowood_alcohol.  In this article Mayor Rhoads is on record as saying, “We’re encouraging our delegation to allow the citizens of Flowood the right to vote.” His position is that the citizens of Flowood have the “right to vote” on liquor independent of Rankin County and irregardless of how Rankin County has voted on alcohol/liquor in the past.

It begs the question as to why the mayor would want another vote if he is impartial to Flowood’s alcohol status since liquor has been repeatedly voted down in years past.