You just knew that this was coming. When Governor Huntsman signed the bill into law making private clubs a thing of the past you were just waiting for the next shoe in the liquor world to drop and you knew it would not be good.
Now we find out that the state is running out of liquor licenses for restaurants. As of right now there are 12 full service alcohol licenses available for the entire state. After next weeks DABC meeting there could be but 1 licenses left.
How does this happen when you would think that the DABC could take all applications for such licenses and evaluate them on their individual merits and grant or deny a license. Not so fast......they do that kind of scrutiny but they are also bound by the states arbitrary quota system of 1 license for every 5200 people in the state. How they came up with such number and the reason behind it in the first place are still a mystery.
So with the growth of the state and people wanting to open restaurants with full service licences we have to wait for the population to grow by these numbers. What puzzles me is how does the state know just how many residents do we have at any given moment with people moving in and moving out on a daily basis. Why don't we have licenses available to quallified applicants and let the market place dictate whether a business succeeds or not?
The only way to correct this stupid law if at the Legislative level. With Gary Herbert poised to be the next Gov and Mike Waddoups still President of the Senate, I wouldn't hold my breath on any new liquor legislation happening any time soon.