DENVER • Death (the penalty, that is) and taxes (or at least vehicle registration fees) have aroused passions in the state Legislature this year.

But Coloradans being the kind of folks they are, no topic has prompted more citizens to beat a path to the Capitol than beer.

The building was awash on Wednesday with foes – and nearly an equal number of friends – of a bill to kill a requirement that groceries sell no beer with an alcohol content above 3.2 percent, which is somewhat less potent than most brews.

They filled the Capitol’s largest hearing room and two overflow rooms to watch and testify before the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee, which voted 7-4 to kill the bill.

It was the biggest public crowd of the year at the Capitol, and no one was giving away free samples.

The combatants weren’t Joe Sixpacks, but those who sell to them.

Owners of many of Colorado’s 1,700 liquor stores, who fear the loss of sales if full-strength beer is available at Safeways and 7-Elevens, told the committee that the bill, HB1192, was a job-killer that would drive many of them out of business.

Kim Abrams owns Queen Liquor on West Uintah Street, “right next to the highest-volume King Sooper’s in Colorado Springs,” and came to Denver for the hearing. She said she feared for the future of her store if the supermarket gets into the full-strength beer business.

Representatives of Colorado’s craft breweries also opposed the bill, saying supermarket and convenience-store sales of full-strength beer would hurt their sales because they couldn’t compete for shelf space with the big boys – Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors.

Owners of convenience stores and supermarkets, also about 1,700 strong, were hoping the bill would give them a break from last year’s law allowing liquor stores to remain open on Sundays. Convenience store sales of 3.2 beer have plunged.

The measure was sponsored by Rep. Liane “Buffie” McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, who presented a full head of statistics intended to show that loosening the law would not destroy the state’s liquor stores or corrupt Colorado’s youth.

McFadyen said eight states have more liquor stores per capita than Colorado. “All those states,” she said, “allow full-strength beer in both grocery stores and convenience stores.”

She also cited stats showing that in 2008, liquor stores were busted more often for violations involving sales to minors than convenience stores and supermarkets combined.

Henry Sobanet, a former director of the state Office of Planning and Budgeting, testified that consumers would benefit from increased competition and convenience and tax revenues would rise if the bill passed

The liquor stores countered with Tom Binnings of Summit Economics, a Colorado Springs research firm, who said his analysis showed that if the bill became law, up to 50 percent of liquor stores would vanish, along with almost 10,000 jobs and $15 million a year in state revenues.

Dozens of liquor store owners came forward to predict catastrophe if the bill passed. Several offered to give up the Sunday sales law if HB-1192 could also be defeated.

Other opponents, including the director of MADD Colorado, argued that the bill would put full-strength beer in the hands of teenage checkout clerks who would succumb to pressure to sell to their underage friends without checking ID.

Supporters argued that supermarkets were accustomed to carding for 3.2 beer and tobacco, and would do the same with full-strength beer.

Richard Oneslager, a convenience-store owner from Greenwood Village, said the bottom line was this: the convenience and competition of having more outlets for full-strength beer would benefit consumers. If they had turned out for the hearing, he said, “you’d have to hold this in Invesco Field, and it’d be sold out.”

But Mark Johnson, a Lakewood liquor store owner, noted that opponents of the bill claimed nearly twice as many petition signatures as supporters. “Consumers don’t want it,” he said.

Reps. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, and Amy Stephens, R-Monument, voted against the bill, but said they were unhappy with the status quo and favored some new effort to fix the regulatory framework.

“The beer wars continue,” Liston said._____

CALL TODA: 476-1654

This Sept. 3, 2008 file photo shows Bristol Palin, daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and her boyfriend Levi Johnston at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Photo by (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, file)

Charles Rex Arbogast