Purgatory for Tennessee Liquor License Renewals?

Renewing restaurant, hotel and liquor-by-the-drink licenses in Tennessee has never been painless. Busy staff regularly forget to pass along the renewal paperwork to corporate. Even after filing, renewals are often delayed - and citations issued - because Revenue shows taxes due or reports LBD bond issues. Exacerbating the frustration, Revenue records frequently show taxes owed, when in fact, no taxes are due.

Hold on to your seats. Things are poised to get worse.

Longtime Nashville Tennessee ABC renewal staffer Grace Buchanan is leaving for a new gig at Vanderbilt this Friday.

Tennessee LDB staff have been stretched thin for nearly a year. ABC Director Danielle Elks has been covering for two vacant staff attorney positions. The ABC handles thousands of LBD licensees, without the benefit of modern computer systems.

To make matters worse, Tracey Richards at Revenue, who gives tax clearance and manages bonds, has been promoted and transferred, leaving her colleague, Rondle John, and supervisor Martha Potter to handle LBD tax clearance and bonds for the entire state. Their job is complicated by ancient technology that often shows incorrect tax data, for no apparent reason.

We hear that there are no plans to replace either Grace at the ABC or Tracey at Revenue. Despite both positions being critical to a large source of tax revenue (LBD pays up to 24.75% tax on sales), the state hiring freeze may mean the positions remain vacant indefintely.

Renewals could be considerably more complicated for some time. Welcome to Hades.