The Idaho Federation of Reagan Republicans has suspended efforts to put an initiative on the November ballot to privatize liquor sales in Idaho, said group President Jeff Ward on Monday.

Due to questions over whether the proposed ballot language was constitutional, the conservative group deemed that collecting 47,432 petition signatures by the April 30 deadline was not a viable plan.

"Unless it was pretty clear that it was definitely constitutional, that could be a major argument against it once it got on the ballot," said Ward.

The group's draft ballot initiative, which proposed eliminating the Idaho Liquor Division and creating licenses for private liquor retailers, raised questions during a review by Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden.

In Wasden's written review of the text, he stated that the initiative was structured to be revenue generating. The state constitution requires initiatives to be revenue neutral.

The review also noted that the constitution specifies for the legislature to regulate alcohol.

Whether or not he agrees with Wasden's interpretation, Ward said there wasn't enough time to address the issues and conduct a signature drive at once.

"We're not attorneys. We didn't have the time nor the resources to convene with a bunch of attorneys," Ward said, but he added, "I think the initiative can be structured in such a way that it would meet the requirements of the constitution."

The group had been pursuing the ballot initiative out of concern that the state government is overreaching its authority in controlling all alcohol sales in Idaho.

"We thought it was something the government shouldn't be doing," Ward said. "We also thought controlling liquor by being its No. 1 sales person isn't fulfilling the constitutional requirements of guarding the sobriety of the people."

The Reagan Republicans hope the state Legislature will consider the matter in its next session, Ward added.

If not, his organization will try again, he said.

"If there's not anything (changed), I suspect we may be looking at 2014 to do it," Ward said.