‘Like a divorce.’ Kudos to local Ky leaders standing up to bourbon industry greed | Opinion

Congratulations to Tim Hutchins, Richard Heaton, David Daugherty and other local officials who are taking a brave public stance against our latest corporate villains: the bourbon industry.

As reported by local outlets and our own Janet Patton, leaders in Nelson, Marion and Bullitt counties are pulling the plug on further warehouse development to offset the eventual removal of the barrel tax that recently made it through the legislature. HB 5 would take effect starting in January 2026, with the bill reaching 100% tax exemption by 2043.

That barrel tax supports schools and local governments that pay for the roads, and other infrastructure that serves the numerous bourbon distilleries and warehouses in a cluster of counties. Most important are the fire departments that have to be ready if and when one of these massive warehouses filled with alcohol goes up in flames — incidents we’ve seen before.

The bourbon industry is in a record expansion of distilleries, warehouses and profits; the international companies that own these labels don’t care about local communities, they just want more money for shareholders. Legislators voted to appease Big Bourbon even though numerous local officials begged them not to take away the support that helps them support the industry.

The bill would hold the industry responsible for payments to school districts, but it’s reduced based on increasing SEEK payments, so eventually the industry’s share would phase out.

This latest development is interesting because as economists like Jason Bailey have noted, Kentucky leaders normally have a much more subservient attitude toward its big industries. When is the last time you saw a judge in a coal county tell a company they couldn’t expand a mine or a mayor in Fayette or Woodford tell a horse person much of anything?

But people like Hutchins know that for the bourbon industry, the brand is Kentucky. They’ve built their warehouses and their distilleries and their bourbon tours and they are here to stay. The state has a much stronger negotiating position than it does with an auto company that could locate anywhere.

Hutchins told me that industry officials are now saying the building moratorium Nelson County put in place last week is some kind of “revenge” or “retribution” for the barrel tax vote. But he’s been mad for almost a decade, when Nelson County implemented a rule that said if a distillery had a 100-acre parcel, they could do anything they wished without planning or zoning authorization.

“That’s the end game I’m trying to accomplish — that distilleries have to go through planning and zoning and that means citizens have a say in what’s going on,” Hutchins said. “I said in my campaign I wanted to revisit zoning and planning and all the ordinances in the county to make them simpler and easier to understand.”

And by the way, Hutchins has seen remarks from disgruntled bourbon execs. But he’s received hundreds of calls, texts and messages in support of his stance (along with the constant complaints about whiskey fungus).

Last August, I wrote about the threat of the tax’s demise, urging lawmakers to stop their historic submission to big industries like coal, horses or bourbon to recognize the mutual good that could be obtained by working together. The extended honeymoon that Kentucky and bourbon have experienced could deepen into a beautiful, mutually beneficial relationship.

“Too often in dealing with our industries, Kentucky’s leaders seem to take the position of hostage negotiators, rather than equal partners,” I wrote. “What if instead they said to bourbon, we need you, you need us, we both know you’re not going anywhere. We both need steady growth, but we don’t need for Kentucky to suffer so you make even more profits for international stakeholders ... Healthy relationships are based on trust and mutual understanding, not threats and subterfuge. We love Kentucky bourbon and we want it to love us back.”

When I mentioned this to Hutchins, he snorted. “Now it’s more like a divorce.”

There’s still time for marriage counseling. But it will require legislators who listen more to local county leaders than bourbon industry donations that reliably come their way every year.