Alaska's liquor-license office is buried — and says it's worse than the numbers show

Alaska's liquor-license office has a 59-deep backlog, a 1,200-renewal pile, and a memo basically saying it's worse than that. Cheers.

If you're waiting on a liquor license in Alaska, you're in a long line — and the people processing it are telling their bosses they're underwater.

The state's Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office is sitting on 59 unprocessed license applications, some filed back in January. They're split between brand-new licenses and transfers from one owner to another — businesses trying to open or change hands. Every one is a bar, restaurant, or store waiting on permission to legally sell alcohol while the paperwork stalls.

That's just the backlog. On top of it, nearly 1,200 licenses are up for their regular renewal this cycle. Most are moving, but a couple hundred are still stuck in the queue.

And here's the part the office wants its board to understand: even those numbers undersell the load. In a June 17 memo, licensing supervisor Sonya Irwin laid out the count, then warned that it leaves out most of what her staff do all day — taking in applications, fielding phone calls and emails, processing ownership and name changes, training new hires, and covering for empty positions.

The biggest drain is a project that's supposed to help. AMCO is rolling out a new online licensing system, AK-ACCIS, which means staff are testing and running the new one while keeping the old one alive — doing the same job twice through the changeover.

The upshot for businesses is simple: expect to wait.