The regulation of Wisconsin’s alcohol industry would be overhauled under a bipartisan proposal supported by the state’s largest producers and wholesalers that overwhelmingly passed the Assembly on Wednesday.
Now headed to the state Senate, AB 304 would transfer all alcohol beverage regulations to a newly-created Division of Alcohol Beverages within the state Department of Revenue. The new division would enforce state laws that pertain to breweries, wineries and distilleries, as well as retailers and distributors of alcoholic beverages.
Gov. Tony Evers would likely sign the bill into law given its vast bipartisan support.
“I am proud that we were able, after almost a decade of negotiations between all the individuals who are involved in the alcohol industry, to generate a consensus that it seems like the vast majority of those involved support,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said before the bill’s passage.
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The bill passed the Assembly 90-4, with three Democrats and one Republican voting against it. Those against the bill were Democratic Reps. Clinton Anderson of Beloit, Marisabel Cabrera of Milwaukee, Jenna Jacobson of Oregon, and Rep. Rick Gundrum, R-Slinger.
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Currently, alcohol in Wisconsin is distributed and sold through a roughly 90-year-old, three-tier system in which producers of beer, wine and spirits sell to wholesalers, who then sell the products to retailers to sell to consumers.
The three-tiered system was created in the 1930s to prevent monopolies by barring any one company from producing and selling alcohol at the wholesale level. The framework has been a point of criticism over the years for failing to keep up with the changing industry and growing businesses in craft beers or wedding barns.
Under the bill, the new division would be able to appoint “special agents” and other employees to carry out permitting, as well as audits, enforcement, education and legal functions. The bill stipulates that any agents employed by the division cannot have any financial interest in the alcoholic beverage industry.
The bill would allow brewers to operate retail locations without tap rooms to sell beer and expand hours of operations for wineries, allowing those establishments to stay open as late as bars.
Another component in the bill would require wedding barns, or venues that sell or provide alcohol for special events, to secure a permit or alcohol license to operate. People operating wedding barns said the bill would effectively eliminate their businesses.
“I love the wedding barn industry. I think it’s great that we have entrepreneurs who do it, but they have to follow the law,” Vos said. “If you are serving in a public venue alcohol, you should have licensed bartenders, you should go through the same liquor license process that a tavern or a restaurant goes through.”
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