Beer Likely at Oktoberfest After Utah Lawmakers Rip Brouhaha

Sodden question: "Are major legislative changes in store for Utah's state-run liquor monopoly?"

Following up on our discouraging earlier WCF articles on the topic, we're delighted to shine the spotlight on the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News stories linked below, reporting that it appears that higher-alcohol beer, wine and spirits likely will flow" at this year's Snowbird Resort Oktoberfest, in the aftermath of yesterday's legislative committee hearing:

• Beer likely at Oktoberfest after Utah lawmakers rip brouhaha
• Utah lawmakers take no action on alcohol permit rule

"If it's not in statute, how did it get there? DABC has been essentially writing law, in conflict or not exactly with what the law says," House Representaive Becky Lockhart asked, referring to the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control's recent "reinterpretation" of single event liquor permit rules.

And check out this humdinger of a comment from conservative GOP Senator Mark Madsen, R-Saratoga Springs, who said lawmakers should re-examine the state's control of liquor sales:

"We need to look at the issue of having the state as the sole purveyor of spirits in the state," Madsen said. "When the government seeks to socially engineer, we run into problems like this and there are all kinds of unintended consequences."

Sodden question: "Are major legislative changes in store for Utah's state-run liquor monopoly?"

We won't hold our breath; but will however remark however that it's encouraging to observe some of Utah's most conservative legislators actively reining in Utah's renegade DABC bureaucrats.