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Judge: Sullivan County owes cities $180K in past drink taxes
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BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A judge has ordered Sullivan County to pay more than $180,000 to the cities of Kingsport and Bristol for past liquor-by-the-drink revenue collected over a 30-year period.

The Kingsport Times-News (http://bit.ly/2dBcm1L) reports that a chancery court judge on Thursday ordered the county to pay about $107,000 to Kingsport and nearly $76,000 to Bristol.

Sullivan County Attorney Dan Street said he will appeal.

The cities sought the money as part of a counter-lawsuit filed after the county wanted about $2 million in liquor-by-the-drink tax revenues from the cities. The county's lawsuit was dismissed in February.

The tax in question is a 15 percent state tax on on-premise mixed drinks. The money is sent to Nashville, and the state sends half of it back to the locality where it was generated.