Lawmaker silence on alcohol deaths raises questions for SB24-020

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Recent reports on the 60% rise in alcohol deaths that have surpassed drug overdose deaths in Colorado over the same time period as the permitting and expansion of alcohol takeout and delivery initiated by executive order in response to the COVID pandemic lockdown raises affected citizen questions concerning Senate Bill 24-020 to make alcohol takeout and delivery expansion permanent.

The alcohol delivery and takeout program has been a huge success and important boon for restaurants and related businesses who sell alcohol. The pandemic based bill is set to expire in 2025. The proposed bill SB24-020 will make the alcohol delivery and takeout permanent at only $11/year for a permit fees. Last year the state had around 2500 permit applications, according to the fiscal statement attached to the bill, for a total of $26,000 to the state.

However, the rise in alcohol deaths over the same time period could justify the need for a correlation study to make sure there is no connection between the rise in deaths and alcohol delivery and takeout expansion before making it permanent.

I testified suggesting an amendment to raise the annual permit fee from $11 to $111 ($8/month) so that the added $100 can go to addiction healthcare and housing to the tune of $250,000 and the state sill gets to keep the $26,000.

Everyone wins. Alcohol takeout and delivery are made permanent in the law so that industry and their customers benefit while the industry also contributes to the addiction healthcare and housing fallout for those who don’t benefit from their resulting success. The bill passed committee unanimously without amendments and moves to Senate Finance Committee tomorrow, February 6.

Here’s the 1 page (2 sided) citizen policy brief I put together and sent to the bill’s sponsors after testifying to the Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee on Thursday, February 1, 2024.

sb24-020-policy-brief-k-hartman-2-1-24-updated-2-7-24Download

Post Author: Krystyn Hartman is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Policy program at the University of Colorado School of Public Affairs. This site is a test research project.

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