02.28.2025 Politico Playbook
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Influential private-sector groups — including the Business Council and the Long Island Association — are making a push to overhaul New York’s decades-old alcohol and beverage control laws.
A coalition of organizations this week in a letter to Sen. James Skoufis cheered his support for measures that would change many of those laws and regulations, some of which have been on the books for nearly a century. Potential changes include allowing bars and restaurants to buy directly from liquor stores, permitting liquor store owners to have more than one location and backing the sale of non-alcoholic items in liquor stores.
The changes could be consequential for the industry and Hochul has been willing to take a consumer friendly approach to alcohol laws. Plus, booze is big business for New York, a state that ranks third in wine production.
“That’s why it is so important to review the ABC laws since they have remained virtually unchanged on the sales end since the Prohibition era of the early 1930’s,” the groups wrote in a letter. “Just to put that in perspective, the Ford Model Y with an 8-horsepower engine was the top selling car when these laws were created.”
Skoufis told Playbook he wants “common sense” changes.
“Most of the state’s alcohol laws date back to Prohibition and were put in place to curtail the mob and limit consumer choice — the only people who prefer today’s system are the folks who financially benefit from these protectionist laws,” he said. — Nick Reisman