HOUSE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BILL OMITS LANGUAGE TO RESTORE LOCAL CONTROL OF LIQUOR LICENSES
House Members Will Likely Debate the Bill Next Week
Please Call Your Representatives Today and Ask Them to Include Local Control of Liquor Licenses in The House’s Economic Development Bill
The House of Representatives is expected to debate a comprehensive economic development bill next week. However, House leaders are advancing a bill that excludes important language contained in Governor Patrick’s economic development bill that would lift statutory caps on local liquor licenses for bars and restaurants.
With Governor Patrick’s language, cities and towns would be able to develop their own plans to set the number of liquor licenses that would be available for restaurants and bars within their communities. Without this important provision, cities and town will be forced to continue pursuing additional liquor licenses through a cumbersome and time-consuming home-rule process. [ Remember the lengthy process for Cote's] This process requires cities and towns to file special legislation and wait for approval from the state Legislature and Governor. The state approval process often moves too slowly to meet local demand, delaying local economic growth and disrupting development. Restaurants play a key role in the vitality of neighborhoods, and increasingly serve as anchor tenants in large-scale retail or mixed-use developments of regional significance, generating tax revenue at the local and state levels. Delays in the liquor license issuance process are bad for business and bad for the local economy. Further, when it comes to deciding whether to grant new liquor licenses, local officials know and understand the needs of their communities and neighborhoods much better than the State House ever can.
IT IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT THAT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES HEAR FROM YOU TODAY. Please call your House members and tell them that the provision to return control over liquor licenses to cities and towns should be included in the economic development bill that they will debate next week, and ask them to restore the Governor’s language.
Please contact MMA Legislative Director John Robertson at jrobertson@mma.org or 617-426-7272 x122 at any time if you have any questions or need more details.
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Massachusetts Municipal Association
One Winthrop Square, Boston, MA 02110
(617) 426-7272
All contents copyright 2013, Massachusetts Municipal Association
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One Winthrop Square, Boston, MA 02110
(617) 426-7272
All contents copyright 2013, Massachusetts Municipal Association
You can also Unsubscribe from MMA emails.
Having local control of liquor licenses places the responsibility that comes with liquor where it belongs, right here in town. This same local control should also extend to the drugs we are placing in our water supply such as the enzymatic poison fluoride. There is no doctor controlling who gets this poison nor how much of this neurotoxic chemical is given to each patient. Infants, people with kidney problems, thyroid problems along with a long list of other possible health problems are unaware of the health risks that fluoride may pose. Fluoride has been shown to be both carcinogenic and mutagenic by the EPA. Four different lawsuits has shown that fluoride increases cancer rates 4-10% in communities that have adopted fluoridation. Local control of both liquor licenses and fluoridation would seem the right thing to do. Pete Farrell
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that a business would come to town, especially one that needs a liquor license to go along with their fine dinning, but with out the license businesses can not be successful. No one knows their town better than the people who live in them. These are the people who should make these decisions. I remember a business that was in Gardner when I was a kid. Buffo's served spaghetti and pizza in their home. It was a family business that did very well. The building they were in was torn down to make way for a larger building that was going to be a restaurant, run by the same people. Everything was going well, until the Church near by protested when the owner applied for a liquor license. That was the end of the restaurant, and a family's dreams. The difference between a glass of wine at dinner and a bar is huge, and I seriously doubt the Italian restaurant near by would have hurt the church at all. Decisions about the number of licenses and who they go to should be a decision made by the town. This will be a good move toward local control. Bev.
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