Kansas Retailers Form Coalition for Jobs and Consumer Choice

OPEKA, Kas. -- More than 1,700 Kansas businesses and industry organizations in the retail business – including grocery, c-store and other retailers -- announced this week that they have formed the Coalition for Jobs and Consumer Choice (CJCC), a group committed to updating laws on the sale of beer, wine and spirits. The group comes together to support legislation to update the laws that create both immediate and long-term economic benefits for the state, the company stated.

"Citizens across the state have been struggling through this economic downturn and we need to do all we can to keep businesses, jobs and economic activity in Kansas, and modernizing these anti-competitive laws can help," Tom Palace, executive director of the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association of Kansas said in the released statement. "Updating laws on the sale of beer, wine and spirits will provide significant revenues for Kansas businesses, local and state governments, and for the economy as a whole -- and it will do so immediately."

"Like many other states, Kansas has been hit hard by the economic downturn. As a result, supermarkets have been negatively affected in all aspects of their business," Jon McCormick, president of the Retail Grocers Association added in the release. "Deregulating current laws will promote competition in both rural and urban areas, enabling supermarkets to create more jobs, generate tax revenue and increase options for consumers."

Working with Kansas legislators, CJCC plans to push for the update of current laws to allow grocery, c-store and other state retailers to sell beer wine and spirits; hoping that it will aid the state in new and sustainable sources of revenue. Updating the laws on the sale of these products is a simple yet substantial way to increase revenue without increasing state taxes, CCJC stated. According to the release, Kansas currently faces an estimated $550 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year.

For more information on The Coalition for Jobs and Consumer Choice visit www.jobsforkansas.com.