SALT LAKE CITY—Gov. Jon Huntsman said Thursday that Utah’s liquor laws need to be brought into the 21st Century and that he’s opposed to any plan to hide liquor bottles in restaurants, saying it would be a step in the wrong direction for a state that is working to improve its image and increase visitation by 25 percent by 2012.
Tourism leaders have long complained that Utah’s quirky liquor laws—among the strictest in the country—are a deterrent to potential tourists and that those who visit often leave with bad memories because of them.
But Huntsman has repeatedly found himself butting heads with Republican lawmakers over easing Utah’s statutes.
Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, wants restaurants to mix cocktails in a back room, out of the view of customers. He said seeing liquor bottles and drinks being poured entices children to drink.
“The Senate position is we want to do anything we can to have less DUIs and do anything we can to have less exposure to alcohol by minors. Frankly, that’s the reason for that, to keep that glamour, that attractive nuisance, away from minors,” he said.
Huntsman told reporters Thursday he’s opposed to Waddoups’ plan because it is contrary to federal court rulings about the display of alcohol and compliance would cost restaurants tens of thousands of dollars in retrofitting.
Instead, he said Utah should follow the lead of other states and not allow children to sit at bar counters.
“What we’re trying to do here, is in a sense, is mainstream a lot of these policies that are somewhat anachronistic,” Huntsman said.
Utah is the only state where customers cannot be served a cocktail directly over the counter at restaurant bars, many of which have partitions dubbed “Zion Curtains” between customers and bartenders. Restaurants have complained about the structures for years.
“The Zion Curtain, in my mind, doesn’t serve a purpose,” said Hans Fuegi, a Park City restaurant owner and member of the state tourism board. “Are they going to start drinking because they see a glass of wine being poured in a restaurant? I’m sorry. We live in the real world here. We’re not on some different planet. These kids are going to be exposed to that in their lives.”
Utah is also the only state that requires someone to fill out an application and pay a fee to enter bars, which by law are considered private clubs, though they’re open to the public.
The private club system and the Zion Curtain evolved over time through legislative action and court rulings following the defeat of a 1968 referendum that would have allowed the sale of liquor by the drink in restaurants.
Huntsman said Utah should listen to tourism leaders and eliminate the private club system and the Zion Curtain.
“If it’s a priority for them, it’s a priority for me. Because if they succeed, we succeed as a state and ultimately classrooms, teachers and our critical expenditures as a state are enhanced,” he said. “Let’s build upon what we have to offer as a state in making ourselves a premier destination. … Yeah, we probably need to burnish a few areas, bring ourselves into the 21st Century, and this is one area I hear time and time again and one that we’re going to fix.”
However, GOP senators, including Waddoups, have said they’re opposed to loosening the state’s liquor laws. They have said they’re partly responsible for reducing underage consumption and Utah having the nation’s lowest DUI fatality rate, although they have not publicly said how.
Huntsman said during a monthly KUED news conference Thursday that nobody has told him yet how Utah’s laws contribute to those lower rates.
“All I’ve been told is there is no connection,” he said. “And if some of the experts are willing to weigh in and provide data that it does otherwise, then we ought to be open to accepting that.”
Membership cards are not legal forms of ID, are easily fabricated and once inside a bar, customers are treated no differently than they are in bars in the rest of the country.
Utah is unique in that about 60 percent of the state’s population are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which tells its members not to drink alcohol.
Waddoups’ position on the value of private clubs has varied over the years.
Earlier this month, Waddoups said the state’s private club laws needed to be loosened, though he wouldn’t say how. But he also said private clubs are necessary as a way to track who is drinking and where.
However, private clubs don’t keep a log of who enters each night or what they ordered.
On Thursday, Waddoups said the advantage to having private clubs is that the fee discourages people from going to more than one bar a night.
“I don’t profess to be the expert on this, but my understanding is that by having a private club it’s easier to know if people are bar hopping around,” he said. “We should make sure they’re not going driving.”
In 2006, Waddoups told a legislative committee considering banning smoking in private clubs that the system was outdated.
“You can get that membership whether you’re a resident or a tourist at any one of these places very simply. It’s not difficult to do. I personally believe that the private club issue in Utah is outdated,” Waddoups said. “That’s my personal opinion on the issue. I think that if we want to have a place for people to drink we should let them have a place to drink.”
He said Thursday that view hasn’t changed—he just wants to find a better system at keeping minors out of bars and reducing drunk driving.
Discussing his proposed smoking ban, which took effect Jan. 1 of this year, Waddoups said in 2006 that private clubs aren’t really private.
“There’s a reason we have the private club law in this state. It’s because we don’t want to be perceived as friendly to alcohol,” Waddoups told The Associated Press then. “But at the same time we’re not really living up to the expectations of the law in many of these clubs. I’m thinking the smoking ban is a step to point out these (clubs) are not as private as we say they are.”
