Petitions to legalize alcohol now on streets
By JIMMY GALVAN Managing Editor

Petitions calling to legalize alcohol in the city of Jasper should be on the streets in Jasper, according to John Hatch of Texas Petition Strategies.

Hatch said he expected the petitions to be circulated on Monday, Jan. 14 but a short delay resulted in them coming out a day later.

Hatch added that the committee members of the Jasper Citizens for Better Business should be announced this week as well and he asserted it would be made up of local citizens of Jasper.

"This committee will be made up of Jasper citizens," Hatch said. "This is just a tactic that the opposition likes to do. Our response to that is no matter how many different ways they want to slice this, you might have out-of-town companies that might want to fund one of these efforts because there is a local desire to have it done, but the only way by state law this can be put on the ballot is when people of Jasper sign the petition saying they want to have the election.

"This tactic of saying this is not locally-sponsored is expected but the reality of it is that the retail businesses that support this proposition are very much involved with the community," Hatch said. "Every group that raises money for charity gets money from these businesses. The people that will be part of this committee will be local and the bottom line is that the people of Jasper will decide if this is on the ballot and if it passes. There is no business in the state of Texas or in the country that can put this on the ballot in Jasper, Texas."

Hatch said there would be out-of-town companies that will be supporting this proposition but added there will be local money involved as well.

"Anyone who claims that is not being done by the citizens of Jasper, well, then who else is doing it?" Hatch said. "I would assume newspapers and radio stations will accept advertising from out-oftown companies and there is no derogatory comments.

"Ford may be based out of Michigan but that doesn't mean the Ford dealer in Jasper is not a local guy just like anybody else," Hatch said.

Hatch said the bottom line on this issue should come down to the amount of sales tax revenue that is presently being lost to areas that allow alcohol sales.

"Grocery stores have reported that for every dollar that they lose in beer and wine sales, they lose three dollars in additional sales," Hatch said. "Basically that means anywhere from $25,000 to $150,000 a week for grocery stores. We know that restaurants have to pay anywhere from $3,000- 20,000 a year to be a private club and that money doesn't generate one dime in sales tax revenue.

"When the citizens of Jasper go somewhere else to purchase beer and wine, all we know is that the taxpayers are not getting one dime of that," Hatch said. "Their money is not going to pay for their roads or their police, but it's going to pay for somebody else's. The reality of it, is that there are a number of people that want this money to stay in Jasper and that is what this issue is about."