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Alcohol Sales Bring Tax Revenue to Benton County

By: Tyler Thomason

Updated: January 17, 2013

"There's a lot of different ways that potential revenue stream could be spent."

Booze on store shelves could mean big bucks for Benton county.

"We think it would be somewhere around $70,000 a year income," says Benton county judge Bob Clinard.

He says that's just for the county operations alone, even more is expected among cities and school systems.

It's a source of tax revenue that Benton county hasn't seen in more than half a century.

"That was part of the reason there was such a big push, the group that was behind it was 'Keep Tax Dollars in Benton County,'" says Steve Cox, vice-president of the Rogers-Lowell Chamber of Commerce.

In Bentonville, economic development director Troy Galloway says it's a little too early to know just how much extra cash could flow from alcohol sales.

He says city officials plan to make decisions after monitoring what kind of money comes in over the first few years.

"Based on that historical data, it's much easier to project," Galloway says.

"So with no history, I think we would be doing the citizens a disservice of making any sorts of projections."

For now those dollars pile into general funds as city officials remain hopeful that alcohol sale patterns create a positive payoff.

"And, if that's the case there's a laundry list of projects within the confines of the city of Bentonville that could potentially be addressed with those additional revenue streams," Galloway says.

And with a dry-turned-wet county comes other opportunities for tax revenue as Cox of the Rogers-Lowell Chamber of Commerce points out.

"Believe it or not, for some companies that we recruit to try to bring in to try to open up stores, and open up corporate offices and things like that, that was in issue," Cox says.

Issue no more.

And new businesses bring the potential for property taxes - payroll taxes -- even more money opening up options countywide.

Clinard adds: "What the people have voted for, we're going to administrate."

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