DENVER (KDVR) — Booze is on the ballot this year in Colorado.
This Sunday on “Colorado Point of View,” host Matt Mauro gets all sides of the ballot propositions that could change the state’s alcohol laws.
Proposition 125 would allow grocery stores and convenience stores that already sell beer to sell wine as well. Proposition 126 would make a pandemic-era rule permanent, allowing restaurants to sell alcohol to-go. It would also allow third-party delivery services, like DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats, to deliver alcohol.
Who’s behind the wine and alcohol ballot measures?
Groups backing these ballot measures are spending big to influence the vote. According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, the group Wine in Grocery Stores has raised more than $11 million for its campaign, and the biggest donors have been some of the nation’s biggest grocery chains.
“It is quite frankly a cash grab by huge multi-national companies at the expense of Colorado jobs,” Mat Dinsmore, owner of Wilbur’s Total Beverage in Fort Collins, said. “When you talk about convenience, it’s convenience at what cost?”
Dinsmore said that if Prop 125 passes, groups against the measure believe 40-50% of locally-owned liquor stores could go out of business within 12-18 months. But Wine in Grocery Stores disputes that claim.
“Let’s talk about this in real terms. When full-strength beer was put in grocery stores, (opponents) claimed that 700 stores would go out of business. It just has not come to pass,” Michelle Lyng with Wine in Grocery Stores said. “There are more liquor stores than ever before. The past three years have been the highest revenue years, according to the Colorado excise tax.”
Watch the full discussion on these alcohol ballot propositions on “Colorado Point of View,” this Sunday at 7:30 a.m. on Colorado’s Very Own Channel 2.