Supporting alcohol measure on ballot is vote for freedom

Voters in Curry and Roosevelt counties are being asked whether alcohol sales should be permitted in the unincorporated areas of the counties.

Let’s hope they approve.

Yes votes don’t mean alcohol is good. Yes votes mean private business owners get to decide what’s best for their businesses.

And we might even see a few more private businesses pop up around the region.

The language on the Nov. 5 ballots will be the same in both counties:

• Do residents wish to allow the sale, service and consumption of alcoholic beverages in unincorporated areas?

• Do residents wish to allow interlocal option district transfers in unincorporated areas?

• Do residents wish to allow the issuance of restaurant beer and wine licenses in unincorporated areas?

As Curry County Manager Lance Pyle explains in a guest column today urging voters to vote, the interlocal option would allow the transfer of an existing liquor license from another city or county in New Mexico to Curry or Roosevelt County.

The rest of the language on the ballots is pretty straightforward.

Proponents for approval will tell you this is an opportunity for economic development.

Suddenly that old Greyhound football stadium might be more attractive to a potential buyer if beer could be sold at a racetrack, for example.

That old Stuckey’s building near Texico would be a nice place for an upscale restaurant if the menu options could include wine.

Those opposing approval are no doubt focused on the dangers of alcohol — potential for abuse, deadly car crashes, underage drinking.

It’s important to remember alcohol is already available at most every grocery store and quick stop in Clovis and Portales. Adding a few new locations won’t enable or encourage abusers.

It’s more important to remember that private business owners risk their own resources when they set up shops. Government can, and does, discourage free enterprise with its ordinances and fees and prohibitions. Nobody bails out Mom and Pop if the business fails.

So Mom and Pop have the right to run their businesses responsibly, as they see fit.

We may not all want to purchase beer — or guns or cigarettes — but it’s wrong to say nobody can buy those things. Just as it would be wrong to say everyone has to buy those things.

Let freedom ring. Vote for free enterprise.

Early voting begins Tuesday.

— David Stevens

Publisher