Alcoholic Beverage Control, Division of

In the final decades of the nineteenth century, declining property tax revenues led to a variety of new State taxes, including establishment of a liquor license fee in 1896. The Liquor Tax Law (Chapter 112) of that year abolished all local boards of excise that had previously collected liquor taxes for localities. It created the state commissioner of excise to control liquor traffic under a State fee-licensing system. The commissioner of excise appointed deputies or authorized county treasurers to issue liquor tax certificates and collect fees. Revenues were divided equally between the State and localities until 1915, when the tax was increased by 25 percent, and this increase was retained by the State. The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution outlawing the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages eliminated this source of revenue from 1920 to 1933. Anticipating repeal of Prohibition, the legislature created the Commission on Alcoholic Beverage Control Legislation early in 1933 (Chapter 4). Upon its recommendation, the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, headed by an Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, was created within the Executive Department later that year (Chapter 180). The division, which was at first concerned only with beer and wine because it was not expected that the Eighteenth Amendment would be repealed entirely, issued licenses and permits and set standards for the manufacture and sale of those beverages. In 1934 (Chapter 478) the division's jurisdiction was expanded to include all alcoholic beverages; the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board was also replaced by the State Liquor Authority, consisting of five members appointed by the governor. In 1995 the number of members on the State Liquor Authority was reduced from five to three.