HELENA – The Montana Revenue Department has rejected a proposal to ease penalties for bars, casinos and stores that sell alcohol to minors.
The industry-proposed change would have allowed a written warning instead of a $250 fine for a first offense by a business selling alcohol to minors, as long as the business sends new employees to a training course within a month of being hired.
Businesses also would have been allowed six violations instead of four before facing the possibility of losing their liquor license.
The state agency issued a notice saying it would not amend its current rules.
“The department during my time here hasn’t had a proposal with such widespread opposition,” Revenue Director Dan Bucks said Thursday.
Bucks plans a May 26 hearing to review and discuss Montana’s current penalties for selling alcohol to minors as well as intoxicated people, and to seek public comment on whether the current penalties are effective deterrents or need to be revised.
The mother of a Montana Highway Patrol officer who was killed in a 2008 crash caused by a drunken driver was pleased the agency backed away from the proposed change and planned another hearing.
Rebecca Sturdevant of Kalispell, mother of Trooper Evan Schneider, noted the Revenue Department’s own research showed most nearby states have stiffer penalties than Montana for serving alcohol to minors or to people who are visibly intoxicated.
Ronna Alexander, executive director of the Montana Convenience Store Association, said she felt “sandbagged” by the administration of Gov. Brian Schweitzer.
Alexander said the 2009 Legislature was on the verge of passing a bill that dealt only with penalties for sales to minors when someone from the governor’s office asked the retail group to drop the bill and instead negotiate a rule change with the Revenue Department.
“The bottom line is we feel a little bit betrayed or whatever because we were promised a deal was a deal, and now it’s not,” Alexander said, saying her group understood the emotions surrounding the issue.