Committee hears recommendation to zero out liquor fund deficit, lowers sports-wagering projection

Commissioner Knight, head of the Department of Liquor and Lottery, told the Government Operations & Military Affairs committee that the department will recommend a budget adjustment to “zero out” a long-running deficit in the Liquor Control Fund and move going forward to transfer only net profit rather than larger historical transfers.

The recommendation comes after an internal review showed the deficit traces back to 2018 and is driven in part by accounting for long-term liabilities under GASB rules and by prior years when transfers from the Liquor Control Fund to the general fund exceeded the fund’s profits, Knight said. “When the GASB rules require the state to start planning for those pension and long term liabilities and started to see, a deficit,” Knight said. She added that her office will calculate transfers as “the revenue that the liquor…