In Trigg County the debate over alcohol sales is nothing new. In 2009 residents there voted to allow alcohol sales both at restaurants and at package stores. Only 36 votes separated the pro-alcohol votes from opposition votes. Judge Executive Stan Humphries has watched Trigg County change from dry to wet. He says revenue for the county is up between $12,000 and $15,000 per month. He says money from licensing fees goes to law enforcement related purchases.
The unemployment rate in Trigg has also decreased, but Humphries says those numbers shouldn't have anything to do with the alcohol vote. In 2009 Trigg had one of the highest unemployment levels in the state due to the closure of big employer, Johnson Controls.
Crime stats, Humphries says, are about the same as well. He says there has been an uptick in burglaries, but he says that can be attributed to the down economy and it shouldn't be attributed to alcohol sales either.
Judge Executive Humphries couldn’t site specific alcohol related crime statistics so we checked with the Kentucky State Police and DUI convictions in Trigg County went down in their first year of being wet. There were 85 DUI convictions in 2010. There were 110 in 2009.
