The talk around Pulaski County these days is the wet/dry vote. You can vote on June 26, 2012 (Harris) to help decide whether Pulaski County should sale alcohol. This is a big debate for the county for the many that approve there are just as many that disapprove. If the vote is wet, this could mean something really good for the city of Somerset and well as Pulaski County.
The unemployment rates have proven to be lower in wet counties than in dry counties (Labor Force Statistics (LAUS - Unemployment Rates)). If the county has alcohol sales, bigger restaurants will want to relocate to that county creating jobs for the locals that would pay more than minimum wage. Not only would they have booming sales from the county, residence from neighboring counties would drive there to buy alcohol. Everyone would benefit from sales of alcohol. County | Wet/Dry/Moist | Unemployment Rate | Franklin | Wet | 8.9 | McCracken | Wet | 9.1 | Carter | Dry | 12.4 | Knox | Dry | 11.8 | Pike | Moist | 11.3 | Pulaski | Moist | 15 |

As you can see in the chart above that Carter and Knox counties, which are dry counties, have about the same rate of unemployment as the moist counties of Pike and Pulaski. The wet counties, Franklin and McCracken have the lowest unemployment rate. As you can see the dry counties have a smaller population that the moist and wet counties. Therefore; the larger population of counties prefer sale of alcohol, which creates more jobs so the unemployment rate goes down.
We must consider the annual amount of money that leaves the pockets of Pulaski County citizens and goes into the neighboring counties. As most know you are unable to purchase alcohol under the current laws. Yet, people do not refrain from the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Logically we can conclude that people purchase the alcohol elsewhere. Money that could recycle itself into the economy of Pulaski County contributes to others.
People traveling from Ohio, known as the ‘Ohio Navy’, visits Pulaski County every summer. When they visit the lake and they pack their alcohol in from other cities, like Richmond, and Lancaster. Just think of the thousands of dollars we lose because Pulaski is dry. Pulaski County gets 1.5 million visitors ( ? ) every year. If you get a fourth of them to buy alcohol in the city of Somerset, they wouldn’t know what to do with the money they would collect. Take Burnside for example: they voted to go moist in 2004. Moist means that you have a wet city in a dry county. According to the “Journal” the city of Burnside, in just 3 years after voting moist, has been able to lower the property tax in 2007 and again in 2011. This was made possible by the food and alcohol taxes that were collected which is $240,000 a year. This is from a city that has a population of 990 in it according to Commonwealth Journal. Burnside also purchased a new cruiser for the police department from this revenue. With the new tax money coming in, Burnside realized that they could annex Lee’s Ford via Lake Cumberland Shoreline ( ) so Lee’s Ford could sell alcohol by the drink, which would mean more tax money for the City of Burnside. Now if Pulaski County stays dry, then Burnside will try to annex more of Pulaski County to Burnside city limits. If Burnside could do that they could move up to a fourth class city, which means that the City of Burnside could potentially open a package store if it came to a vote. The hospitals, schools and the businesses around the county could use the money and so could the city of Somerset. Wouldn’t it be nice to see a bus line or trolley system in Somerset. Anyone could catch the bus or trolley on one end of town and ride to the other end. This in turn would attract more traffic in town. Or maybe someone at Burnside Marina wants to go shopping they could catch the bus or trolley and go to Wal-Mart get what they need and then back to the dock.

More important than the economic aspects of turning Pulaski into a wet county is the safety of the citizens. Drinking and driving is a deadly act. If Pulaski County was a wet county it would decrease driving time to purchase it and decrease the chances of deaths due to drinking and driving. Dry counties have more DWI related crashes than wet counties. According to “The Times Tribune” – “Records from 1995 to 2010 show the percentage of crashes involving drivers under the influence of alcohol decreased in Knox, McCreary and Whitley counties. In Laurel County, the number of alcohol-related wrecks fluctuated during that period, but dramatically decreased in 2009 and 2010.” Records show that “dry” counties are likely to have more DWI charges then “wet” counties. At an average of twenty percent, or more, deference between the two. The Kentucky State Police collects all of this data of collision, crime, DUI’s and Drug’s and complies in into The Kentucky State Police Report given to the governor every year with graphs and charts it show how every collision is broken down. Once a county goes “wet”, they hire more policemen to accommodate for stores. For each store that sales alcohol there must be a certain number of policemen. The more stores; the more police officers they have to have, which is a great thing in any county to have. The tax from the sale of alcohol will help with buying new and better equipment for In conclusion, there are a great many circumstances that should be examined before any decision is made. By making it a wet county, business will develop and other means of employment will occur. The biggest benefit is indisputably that which involves human life. If people do not have to drive to get the alcohol the chances of a related accident significantly go down. Human life is invaluable; it is fragile and therefore needs all the help it can get. But there are benefits to making Pulaski County a wet county that cannot be ignored.