Dayton, Tenn., voters facing alcohol question

The most exciting item on the April ballot in Dayton, Tenn., won’t be the races for mayor or City Council.

It’s booze in a bag. The April 19 ballot will be the first with a question on package liquor stores since Dayton passed liquor-by-the-drink four years ago, Rhea County Administrator of Elections Tom Davis said.

Dayton’s mayor and two council seats are also on the ballot, but the incumbents are unopposed, so the package liquor store question is the only item really driving voters to the polls, he said.

“We’re really expecting a low turnout, but we’re hoping for a good turnout,” Davis said Friday.

Dayton has 4,083 registered voters.

Davis said it was unclear which side of the liquor question a light turnout might favor.

“There’s been a little discussion [publicly in the community], but not a whole lot,” he said, referring to conversations around town and among visitors to the election office. “The discussion that I’ve heard is either, ‘People are going to get it anyway so we might as well get the tax revenue,’ or the other side is, ‘I don’t think it’ll be a good thing for the community.’”

State law requires retailers to collect the liquor-bythe-drink tax on the gross on-premises sales of liquor and wine. The consumer pays the tax — now 15 percent — as part of the sale. Half of that revenue is returned to local government and shared with local schools based on average daily attendance.

Alcohol questions appeared on ballots in Rhea County before. Dayton and Spring City voters passed liquor-by-the-drink in 2012. Graysville voters nixed that question in 2012 and again in November 2014.

In November 2016, Dayton voters also passed a wine in grocery stores referendum by a 3-to-1 margin. Davis said a statewide push on wine in grocery store sales — on ballots all over Tennessee last November — might have made the margin greater.