Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Liquor sales are on the rise in Marion

With just days left in the City of Marion’s fiscal budgetary year, it’s clear that local liquor sales are outpacing last year. 

Marion legalized liquor sales in August of 2019. The city receives a five-percent tax on the sale of wine, beer and distilled alcohol, and places that sell must buy a license. Those revenues are remitted each month to the city. After 10 months reporting from FY21, tax revenue generated from liquor sales and licenses has been $63,006.37. That’s well above the entire first year of tax taken in from legal liquor sales. 

FY20 tax receipts were $46,766.95, but that was for 11 months because sales were not legal until the second month of the fiscal year. 

Sales tax revenue for alcohol was $5,449.06 in March and $6,090.19 in April, both below average for this budgetary cycle. Tax revenue derived from the legal sale of alcohol is primarily spent on law enforcement.