Today, the Fayetteville City Council reportedly will consider an ordinance to allow public drinking at certain events.
Family Council has put together a free toolkit to help citizens oppose public drinking ordinances like Fayetteville’s. You can download it here.
You can read Fayetteville’s proposed public drinking ordinance here.
Watch the video below to learn more.
This Tuesday, August 20, the Fayetteville City Council reportedly will consider a proposal to legalize public drinking throughout the city’s arts district.
Earlier this year the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 812 by Sen. Trent Garner (R – El Dorado) and Rep. Sonia Barker (R – Smackover). The new law — which took effect last month — lets cities create “entertainment districts” where alcohol can be carried and consumed publicly on streets and sidewalks.
Fayetteville’s proposed ordinance would allow public drinking at:
Alcohol may be purchased and carried and consumed on streets and sidewalks using marked 16 oz. cups during these events.
A memo accompanying the proposed ordinance makes it clear that this is simply the beginning, and in the future the city could expand the times and places that people drink publicly on streets and sidewalks.
As we keep saying, letting people drink on city streets and sidewalks won’t improve the economy in our communities. Public drinking raises serious concerns about public safety.
Cities like Memphis and New Orleans have had significant problems with violence in their entertainment districts.
These districts also raise serious concerns about drunk driving in our communities.
Family Council has put together a free toolkit to help citizens oppose public drinking ordinances like Fayetteville’s.
Our toolkit contains talking points, information about problems public drinking has caused in other states, photographs of public drinking districts elsewhere around the country, and other resources you can use to fight public drinking in your community.
Last week the Arkansas Lottery released its financial statements for the month of July.
The report shows the Lottery took in over $41.2 million last month, but gave only $4.5 million to college scholarships — 11% of the Lottery’s total revenue for the month.
The Lottery’s scholarship budget for a single month hasn’t been this bad since February of 2016, when the Arkansas Lottery paid less than $4.5 million to scholarships.
As far as we can tell, July was the Arkansas Lottery’s third-worst month in the past five years when it came to scholarship funding.
The Arkansas Lottery made, on average, over $1.3 million every day last month. There’s simply no good reason the Lottery can’t give students more than 11 cents out of every dollar.
Below is a breakdown of Arkansas Lottery revenue and scholarship funding from the past five years.
| Month | Gross Lottery Revenue | Paid to Scholarships | % Gross Revenue |
| July, 2014 | 30,925,067.43 | 5,928,447.99 | 19.2% |
| August | 31,571,412.10 | 5,296,965.80 | 16.8% |
| September | 30,710,493.31 | 4,317,227.10 | 14.1% |
| October | 32,959,739.29 | 5,939,625.59 | 18.0% |
| November | 30,617,278.28 | 5,577,035.16 | 18.2% |
| December | 34,507,731.54 | 5,474,318.77 | 15.9% |
| January, 2015 | 35,433,619.67 | 7,287,773.28 | 20.6% |
| February | 41,770,314.46 | 6,161,343.01 | 14.8% |
| March | 37,367,453.25 | 6,898,524.35 | 18.5% |
| April | 33,866,970.54 | 5,881,005.95 | 17.4% |
| May | 35,689,036.10 | 5,409,050.48 | 15.2% |
| June | 33,815,559.59 | 8,278,928.14 | 24.5% |
| July | 31,665,651.14 | 5,784,683.09 | 18.3% |
| August | 31,265,177.55 | 5,490,094.00 | 17.6% |
| September | 36,134,389.63 | 6,624,967.11 | 18.3% |
| October | 35,261,533.80 | 6,020,642.32 | 17.1% |
| November | 32,226,599.28 | 5,725,139.09 | 17.8% |
| December | 38,670,746.09 | 6,425,754.66 | 16.6% |
| January, 2016 | 58,746,249.00 | 13,831,359.75 | 23.5% |
| February | 40,790,144.05 | 4,474,356.06 | 11.0% |
| March | 40,579,421.05 | 5,758,892.84 | 14.2% |
| April | 37,516,802.47 | 7,392,837.00 | 19.7% |
| May | 38,485,146.05 | 6,606,164.94 | 17.2% |
| June | 34,983,951.24 | 11,249,220.37 | 32.2% |
| July | 38,237,293.92 | 8,714,386.39 | 22.8% |
| August | 35,091,022.09 | 5,498,714.86 | 15.7% |
| September | 33,113,391.64 | 5,773,076.42 | 17.4% |
| October | 34,061,993.14 | 5,165,040.54 | 15.2% |
| November | 37,042,079.72 | 6,570,979.51 | 17.7% |
| December | 35,352,159.35 | 4,596,532.22 | 13.0% |
| January, 2017 | 37,062,291.39 | 7,947,546.21 | 21.4% |
| February | 41,176,854.60 | 6,698,099.62 | 16.3% |
| March | 43,405,541.56 | 6,204,704.75 | 14.3% |
| April | 38,671,617.14 | 7,845,827.56 | 20.3% |
| May | 38,185,263.61 | 7,068,770.18 | 18.5% |
| June | 38,517,227.85 | 13,193,652.18 | 34.3% |
| July | 36,885,396.81 | 6,661,762.99 | 18.1% |
| August | 49,320,459.23 | 8,912,741.54 | 18.1% |
| September | 36,405,731.14 | 6,755,333.93 | 18.6% |
| October | 39,802,740.53 | 5,667,305.74 | 14.2% |
| November | 36,186,107.78 | 6,691,228.00 | 18.5% |
| December | 44,716,219.32 | 6,583,355.77 | 14.7% |
| January, 2018 | 44,063,056.11 | 8,230,861.00 | 18.7% |
| February | 39,389,927.57 | 5,947,647.50 | 15.1% |
| March | 53,523,320.61 | 7,945,570.02 | 14.8% |
| April | 42,064,194.78 | 7,192,997.10 | 17.1% |
| May | 40,447,182.69 | 8,037,624.80 | 19.9% |
| June | 37,685,874.97 | 13,364,612.64 | 35.5% |
| July | 42,413,352.70 | 5,066,628.73 | 11.9% |
| August | 40,343,279.62 | 6,175,998.40 | 15.3% |
| September | 35,198,809.72 | 7,783,450.82 | 22.1% |
| October | 57,575,285.62 | 11,259,040.31 | 19.6% |
| November | 37,700,016.00 | 6,821,411.01 | 18.1% |
| December | 45,859,642.73 | 6,650,791.54 | 14.5% |
| January, 2019 | 40,574,813.28 | 7,848,495.62 | 19.3% |
| February | 41,060,111.75 | 8,198,257.31 | 20.0% |
| March | 51,988,380.67 | 8,552,307.04 | 16.5% |
| April | 43,951,257.94 | 8,176,383.34 | 18.6% |
| May | 41,158,346.08 | 8,396,193.42 | 20.4% |
| June | 38,413,526.87 | 13,482,789.59 | 35.1% |
| July | 41,239,173.79 | 4,523,930.75 | 11.0% |
