Lobbyist claims bill creates monopoly

Erin Neff

Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | 11:15 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- An alcohol restriction bill pushed by the state's top lobbyist and carried by a teetotaling assemblyman allegedly would allow one liquor importer to control the Nevada market.

A representative of Chateau Vegas Wine in Las Vegas said the measure punishes small importers and cements Southern Wine and Spirits of Nevada's role as "the largest monopoly in the country."

"Don't punish the licensed importers," said Bruce Guttman, a California attorney hired to lobby against the bill.

Southern Wine and Spirits' lobbyist Harvey Whittemore said Assembly Bill 437 was designed to plug a loophole and close off the potential for a gray market in liquor distribution.

AB437 defines suppliers of liquor as those designated by the manufacturers.

Guttman, whose client is in a legal battle with Southern Wine over the right to import high-end champagne, said the bill would just cement Southern Wine's monopoly.

Whittemore denied the allegation and said the bill is merely a technicality.

Whittemore has pushed items for Southern Wine for several sessions, and his relationship with owner Larry Ruvo has created a stir in the past.

In 1999, Whittemore slipped an amendment into a bill that allowed him and a few neighbors at Glenbrook in Lake Tahoe to build a pier. Whittemore and Ruvo worked together on the project, which led to a lawsuit and an ethics complaint against then-state Sen. Mark James for letting the amendment go forward. The ethics case was dismissed.

AB437 was sponsored by Chad Christensen, R-Las Vegas, a Mormon who does not drink. Whittemore said Christensen carried the bill because he had not yet reached his bill limit.

Whittemore said the bill means someone cannot illegally import liquor by skirting a 1999 law that granted exclusive rights to provide imported liquor.

He also said Guttman, in a sense, was representing the type of importers who have tried to skirt the law by purchasing liquor outside liquor agreements.

The bill also allows the owner of the liquor to sell it to an importer in Nevada if none of the suppliers defined in the bill is available.

Whittemore said the bill passed in 1999 created an artificial loophole that needed further clarification. But he acknowledged that there has been no challenge to that loophole.

Assemblyman John Marvel, R-Battle Mountain, supported Whittemore during the committee, saying that the bill would benefit "everybody in the state of Nevada."

The state's Taxation Department compliance officer, Dino DiCianno, actually backed up Whittemore when Guttman alleged the bill would give Southern Wine and Spirits a total lock on all liquor importing.

Anyone not technically meeting the letter of the 1999 law and what AB437 tries to specify would be conducting illegal operations, DiCianno said.