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Restaurants and patrons are reacting to a new bill that would make anyone getting an alcoholic drink scan their driver's license. The information would land in a state database.
The lunchtime crowd near 1400 South and Foothill Boulevard is relaxed, but some people are fired up about the new bill that would require anyone getting a drink of alcohol to scan their driver's license.
John Burbidge says people should just show ID, not be put in a statewide database.
"I think they ought to do away with the private club business, and why don't we normalize things a little bit," he said.
But Josh Durrant sees the benefit of tracking how much alcohol people are consuming. "Some of them might get a little carried away, and this way it would help limit it," he said.
Some restaurants say they get a lot of business from alcohol sales, and this new bill may hurt that. The president of the Utah Restaurant Association tells the Salt Lake Tribune she wants to meet with the bill's sponsor, Senate President Michael Waddoups, to discuss it.
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman says he's against creating a statewide database that would track patrons' visits to bars.
Huntsman says he's in favor of scanning driver's licenses to keep minors out of bars, but he says government shouldn't get into the business of keeping tabs on who drinks in the state.
Some lawmakers are considering creating a database as part of a compromise to eliminate the state's private club system.
E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com
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