Liquor sales eyed to increase revenue in Montgomery

Under an operating budget proposed by County Executive Ike Leggett, the Department of Liquor Control has been asked to step up sales to increase county funds.

George Griffin, director of Montgomery’s Liquor Control, said his department is being counted on to transfer $30.4 million to the county’s general fund in the coming year, compared with about $23 million during the current fiscal year. The bulk of the difference, about $5 million, will come from various accounting changes like delaying equipment purchases and adjusting inventory levels so funds aren’t tied up in products left in stockrooms. The remaining $2.4 million will have to be made up through increased sales, Griffin said.

“We do have to increase revenue by 10 percent — we’ve been running at about 7 or 8 percent increase per year so it will be a bit of a challenge,” Griffin said. “We have our work cut out for us, especially given the economic downturn.”

Griffin said legend has it that when the economy is in a crunch, people drink more, but really the opposite is true.

“If not as much discretionary income is available, you’re not dining out as often and then you’re not buying that bottle of wine with dinner, which adds to the challenge ahead of us next year,” Griffin said.

Councilwoman Nancy Floreen floated the idea last week of opening county liquor stores on Sundays, in the hopes of generating up to $1 million more in county money, but Leggett is skeptical.

“Rather than stick [Sunday liquor sales] in to close a funding gap, we wanted to have a better sense of what it might mean,” Leggett’s spokesman Patrick Lacefield said. “How would it affect other vendors of beer and wine in the county? Would it even make sense economically?”

Griffin said he was considering moving one Bethesda shop to a downtown Bethesda storefront and transferring a Gaithersburg shop to a Derwood location, in the hopes of increasing sales by having stores in busier areas.

kmiller@dcexaminer.com