Panel Rejects Request For Liquor License

The Senate’s leadership committee has had its annual bout with the state’s restrictive liquor licensing laws.

And on Monday, an attempt to slip yet another exemption into the law was rejected.

The State Affairs Committee turned down the request of a group of Magic Valley businessmen for a liquor license for their brew pub in the newly created historic warehouse district of Twin Falls.

Unlike nearly all the other exemptions that have worked their way into the law over the years, this one involved a business in a city, where liquor licenses are issued based on population. The others typically involve businesses in unincorporated areas, where liquor licenses are not issued except by special legislative exception.

Critics of the latest attack on the licensing scheme argued that it was unfair to the three dozen other license holders in Twin Falls, many of whom shelled out tens of thousands of dollars for a city liquor license.

But supporters again argued that they will continue to vote for exceptions until the state revamps the licensing program so that licenses which cost only a few hundred dollars to obtain from the city no longer become worth thousands of dollars because so few are available.