That's been a good thing for the city.
Since 2006, the city of Morris has used more than $1.1 million in liquor store profits to pay for city expenses and one-time projects.
Morris Municipal Liquor Store sales have increased steadily every year for the last 10 years, from about $1.39 million in 2006 to approximately $2.01 million in 2015.
The city has budgeted $2.11 million in revenue for 2016.
After accounting for operating costs and money transferred to other city departments, the liquor store has still built up a reserve of nearly $790,000.
"The liquor store manager has been very aggressive with sales" including expanding the wine selection and craft beers in the store, Hill said.
Responsibility for overseeing the revenues and expenditures for the liquor store falls to Finance Director Deb Raasch, who works with Hill to monitor the fund throughout the year.
"Neither of us are micromanagers so I tend to leave department heads run their departments - we probably see more things we want to watch closer in other departments than the liquor store," Hill said.
Each year, Hill said he aims to spend between $50,000 and $100,000 from the liquor store fund on one-time purchases rather than ongoing expenses.
That range has increased at times for specific projects.
For example, in 2013 the city budgeted a $254,890 spend down from the liquor store fund, with $98,000 allocated for the city's share of a new hangar at the Morris Municipal Airport.
Because users at the airport pay rent to use the hangar, the project also generated revenue for the city, Hill said.
In 2015 the city planned a project to bring a water service line to the campground and shelter at Pomme de Terre Park. Because the $47,000 for the project was not budgeted, city staff elected to drawn on liquor store reserves to cover the cost.
"That's a good, one-time thing we can use where we don't have to worry about taking money the next year and the next year and the next year," said Hill.
Hill said he also looks to see if projects "rise to the level that you really need to do it ... you could come up with a lot of good, one time things you could do."
So what would happen if the Morris Liquor Store started to lose money?
It's an issue city staff has discussed.
"If we're losing money then we'd make changes in staffing, probably - we're not going to feed it city tax money," said Hill. "If we start seeing a bad year for liquor we'll have to scale back."
Being a municipal liquor store also brings some added costs.
Other than full time manager Dean Mithun, all other employees - a full time assistant manager and five clerks - are part of the city's union "so there's probably a higher cost than if somebody was running a private liquor store," Hill said.
Overall, though, Hill said having a profitable liquor store is a benefit to the city of Morris.
"It's a good thing for us because it helps us pay for some things we probably couldn't pay for," said Hill.
"My biggest fear is you start doing things you normally wouldn't do just because you have money. ... We have to look at that really close.
Fortunately, we have lots of things we need we can't afford.
It's a good use of the money."
