This year, a new, common sense bill is being proposed that would allow some neighborhood grocery stores to sell beer, wine and spirits by purchasing a retail liquor license and the business from an existing liquor store. Individual liquor store owners will have the freedom to continue to operate their stores or to negotiate with grocery stores to sell their business.  The proposal makes liquor licenses more valuable to those who have them and provides reasonable protection against competition for retail liquor store owners.  

House Bill 1279 will bring a free-market approach to the retail sale of liquor. Interested retail liquor stores and grocery stores will have the option of negotiating the sale of a liquor license.  Negotiations between liquor stores and grocery stores will determine the fair value of a liquor license while local governments will maintain their authority to approve the transfer of any license.

The legislation includes reasonable protections for liquor store owners to prevent grocery stores from competing with nearby “on the property” retail liquor stores. Grocery stores would not be able to purchase a liquor license within the licensing jurisdiction if:

• An existing retail liquor store that is within 1,000 feet of the grocery store decides not to sell its license.
• The retail liquor store is in a different licensing jurisdiction than the grocery store.
• The local licensing authority denies the transfer and conversion.
• No existing retail liquor store in the jurisdiction agrees to transfer a license.
• The liquor license holder is not an existing "bricks and mortar" liquor retail store.

State and local government would remain involved with the liquor license approval and enforcement process in the same manner as today. The transfer would be subject to a new transferability / application fee ($3,000 to the state/$3,000 to the local authority) to the state and local jurisdiction granting approval. These fees will create new revenue for state and local government for either the administration/enforcement costs or some other designated program/fund.