Assembly Member Amanda Septimo said wine and liquor sales would be a needed financial boost for struggling grocery stores and bodegas \u2013 and she\u2019ll make another legislative push next year to make that legal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo think about the fact that something that is so obviously simple and could be beneficial for so many parts of the state, that we’re debating it as long as we have, is one of the stunning parts of Albany,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Septimo keynoted \u201cA Modern Marketplace: The Future of Alcohol Policy\u201d in New York on Thursday at New York Law School in Manhattan. The half-day conference was presented by City & State and sponsored by the Coalition to Expand Consumer Choice, an industry group focused on updating the state\u2019s Alcoholic Beverage Control Law.<\/p>\n
Allowing wine and liquor sales outside of specialized stores has been debated for years, but never enacted into law, primarily due to concerns it would kill the existing liquor store industry.<\/p>\n
But Septimo said it was time to change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re dealing with a set of alcohol laws that were enacted in an era that simply doesn\u2019t exist anymore. These laws were built before you could Uber Eats tequila to your house, before High Noons and Cutwaters, and so many other ways that the world has changed,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so it really just doesn’t follow that we are sort of relying on the same regulatory concept.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other aspects of alcohol law were discussed on other panels. Chelsea Davis, deputy secretary for gaming, cannabis and alcohol in Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s office said that cannabis beverages with THC need to be part of the modernization conversation, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think those beverages are cannibalizing our cannabis industry,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just have to make sure we don\u2019t do it at the expense of cannabis dispensaries, or at the expense of public health.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the audience cheered at the mention of reforming the \u201c200-foot rule\u201d \u2013 which currently bars liquor licenses within a certain distance from churches and schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n
State Sen. James Skoufis suggested that restaurants or bars could be given a carveout if the neighbors approve. \u201cThe restaurant or bar, go get a sign-off from the church pastor, whoever it is, the school administrator,\u201d he said \u2013 and that would be part of the application to the State Liquor Authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Assembly Member Amanda Septimo said wine and liquor sales would be a needed financial boost for struggling grocery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-343663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}