S.6982 (Lanza) /A.9668 (Benedetto)

STAFF CONTACT :

Director of Government Affairs
518.465.7511

BILL

S.6982 (Lanza) /A.9668 (Benedetto)

SUBJECT

Provides for issuance of permits authorizing on-premises consumption licensees to be open between 10:00 AM and noon on Sunday

DATE

Support

The Business Council of New York State, the state’s leading statewide business and industry association, strongly supports S.6982 which would amend the alcoholic beverage control law, in relation to authorizing the sale of alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon on Sunday mornings.

Portions of the alcoholic beverage control law date back to Prohibition and were adopted in an era when Sundays merited different treatment in various communities, vis-à-vis alcohol. For that matter, while such things as bans on Sunday baseball games or general prohibitions on communal entertainment/events on Sundays have long since been repealed, the alcohol beverage control law has not kept pace.

Many wineries and hospitality-related tourism destinations, such as the growing number of “trails” also host travelers at on premise restaurants and eateries. These establishments are barred under current law from selling their locally produced wines, beers, and spirits on one of the busiest times of the week – Sunday mornings. Such impracticalities severely hamper these establishments and prohibit them from offering the very product for which tourists have visited New York State: our wines, beers, and distilled spirits. New York State, as a leading wine producer, and a growing center of craft beer and custom distilleries, has experienced a twining of these industries with our world-renowned tourism industry. This blending of agriculture, customized industry and local tourism adds further economic development to New York State as well as increased tax revenue for both the state and localities.

This bill would modernize state law by permitting any person licensed to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises to apply to the liquor authority for an annual permit to remain open on Sunday between the hours of ten o'clock a.m. and twelve noon. The law takes in to account local restrictions and makes other provisions for certain establishments and, in addition, allows certain premises to apply for a special permit to be open for up to twelve Sundays per year between eight a.m. and twelve noon. The law respects local jurisdictions by requiring notice to local municipalities of an application submitted to the State Liquor Authority for the proposed new hours of operations.

For the above referenced reasons, The Business Council requests the passage of this legislation.