Liquor license plan wins vote in Idaho House panel
Reform would allow more permits
BOISE – The House Judiciary Committee voted 8-6 Thursday to revamp Idaho’s 62-year-old system of doling out liquor licenses after an apparent foe of the plan shifted sides at the last minute to send the measure to the House floor.
Rep. Steve Kren, R-Nampa, cast the deciding vote.
Only minutes earlier, he had voted to kill the bill on a motion that fell short on a 7-7 tie. After the hearing, Kren told The Associated Press that his sudden change of heart came after he decided it was best for the full House to weigh in.
“I saw it was locked up, and at least it deserved debate on the House floor,” Kren said.
There are currently 1,150 licenses in Idaho; 584 people are on the state Alcohol Beverage Control’s waiting list.
The reform measure, which has already cleared the Senate, would do away with Idaho’s quota system that allows a single, state-issued liquor license for every 1,500 people in a city.
Reform proponents, including aides to Gov. Butch Otter who helped draft the measure over two years, say reforms would resolve a license bottleneck that some blame for denting economic growth – as well as eliminate speculators on the current waiting list who aim to sell licenses for tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, rather than open a bar themselves.
Under the new plan, cities and counties could issue unlimited new licenses, but for restaurants and lodging facilities only, not new bars. The measure includes mandatory bartender training and a new punishment scheme for owners of bars and restaurants that serve liquor to minors, including warnings for their first two violations in three years, rather than the immediate threat of license suspension.
Bartenders caught serving liquor to minors would face prosecution.
Russell Westerberg, a lobbyist for Hagadone Hospitality, which opposes the measure, said his client buys more than $600,000 in liquor annually from the state dispensary, but still wasn’t invited to participate in the drafting of the bill.
“You’d think they’d at least ask for some input,” Westerberg said. “We didn’t get a peek at this bill” until after it was introduced.
Some bar owners lambasted the new license scheme during two days of hearings, saying it could undermine the value of existing licenses that in some instances have sold on a secondary market for more than $100,000. That argument resonated with Rep. Janice McGeachin, R-Idaho Falls, who said existing license holders could face economic ruin.
“I cannot cast a vote today that will take somebody’s livelihood away from them,” she said.
Otter’s staff lawyer, David Hensley, contends the bill will end liquor license speculation – some speculators have their names on the current waiting list in dozens of Idaho cities – without amounting to an illegal taking, because the state doesn’t consider liquor licenses private property.