By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
Report from the 6/10/2025 Northfield City Council Work Session
As part of the recent 2024 audit presented to the Northfield City Council, one section of the presentation focused on Northfield’s Municipal Liquor Store, including the store’s revenue generation and its contribution to the city’s operations.
The report showed that in 2024, the Liquor Store generated $2,866,148 in revenue and incurred $2,707,337 in expenses. The auditor, Tom Olinger of Abdo Financial, stated that this was consistent in its revenue and expenses for several years. Furthermore, when comparing Northfield’s Liquor Store, it performs slightly better than the state average:
“The liquor store has been pretty consistent year over year from 2023 to 2024 there you know, and taking a look at the overall cash, we did have a cash increase of about 180,000.” – Tom Olinger of Abdo Financial at the 6/10/2025 Northfield City Council Work Session
Coverage of the Northfield 2024 Audit
City Council Receives Audit Report; Northfield’s Finances Stay Strong Heading into 2025
We will have more stories in the future covering this issue.
In 2024, the average municipal liquor store gross profit was 27.2%, in Northfield, the gross profit was 28.3%
Each year that the liquor store generates a profit, $50,000 from the store is transferred into the city’s budget, rather than being taxed on the building. City Administrator Ben Martig stated that this process generates more revenue for the city than taxes would:
“The liquor store has been pretty consistent year over year from 2023 to 2024 there you know, and taking a look at the overall cash, we did have a cash increase of about 180,000.” – Tom Olinger of Abdo Financial at the 6/10/2025 Northfield City Council Work Session
Report from the 6/10/2025 Northfield City Council Work Session
In 2024, the average municipal liquor store gross profit was 27.2%, in Northfield, the gross profit was 28.3%.
Each year that the liquor store generates a profit, $50,000 from the store is transferred into the city’s budget, rather than being taxed on the building. City Administrator Ben Martig stated that this process generates more revenue for the city than taxes would:
“And again, if this were to be privatized, taxes would go up. The tax is generated on a new liquor store, which would not capture the amount that we’re generating and enjoying off the profits of a city-owned one.” – Ben Martig, Northfield City Administrator on the KYMN Morning Show
Based on the assessment of the building conducted by Rice County, the current Municipal Liquor Store building is valued at $619,300. Using a similarly valued building in downtown, taxes collected on that building were $20,584. Showing the difference Martig was referencing. He also stated that their were safety benefits to a municipal liquor store:
“Limiting access to like one provider of alcohol sales has also proven to be. To reduce access to youth and people under 21.” – Ben Martig, Northfield City Administrator on the KYMN Morning Show
Rice County Assessment Documents (from Beacon)
Municipal Liquor Store Document
A similarly valued building at 305 Division St. Document
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