"Backroom dealing" on beer bill
Franchot forms task force, calls HB 1283 "cockamamie"
The state’s top finance officer wants to prune Maryland’s byzantine and unwieldy beer laws down he said, so that they will “fit on a cocktail napkin.”
Comptroller Peter Franchot was in Frederick Tuesday to announce he’s forming a task force to do the heavy lifting of updating and simplifying the state’s antiquated beer laws. He wants the task force to be finished by September or October so that lawmakers can have a crack at the proposed changes in the 2018 session of the General Assembly. The state comptroller’s office administers alcohol laws and regulations, and collects related taxes. [Pictured above, Sen. Ron Young, Del. Karen Lewis Young, and Peter Franchot in Frederick]
The task force, Reform on Tap, aims to “scrape the barnacles off” a set of laws that, in some cases, have gotten so complicated Franchot said he doesn’t even understand them. Find out more and give your thoughts at Reform at Tap’s Facebook page here.
Franchot made the announcement at Attaboy Beer, an independent brewery and taproom on Carroll Creek, owned by Brian and Carly Ogden. The comptroller did not temper his disgust for the passage of HB 1283, that opponents say will curtail the growth of craft breweries in the state. “Good old boys,” "backroom dealing" with lobbyists, and a lot of “arm twisting” resulted in the “cockamamie bill” that emerged, he said.
“This [bill] stifles the growth and success of Maryland’s thriving craft beer industry,” Franchot said.
Franchot praised Sen. Ron Young (D-Dist.3) for speaking up against the bill, one of the few to do so, he said.
The bill prohibits breweries from selling beer on site unless it is made entirely on the premises, barring brewers from producing beer at another facility when they don’t have the capacity to keep up with sales. The new legislation gives brewers a 2,000 barrel limit for taproom sales; they were previously limited to 500 barrels a year. The new bill also allows for an additional 1,000 barrels, for a total of 3,000 barrels, only if the brewers sell them to a wholesaler first, which some view as a burdensome way to do business.
Although the bill is less punitive than what was originally proposed, The Brewers Association of Maryland acknowledged it’s far from ideal. “After negotiations on the bill in the Senate, we reluctantly support the passage of HB1283 as amended by the Senate with the understanding that breweries will continue on their path to modernize Maryland’s beer laws in the years ahead,” BAM said in an April 7 statement.
Carly Ogden, owner of Attaboy Beer, said Tuesday that if the new law had been in place last year, she and husband Brian would not have opened their business in Maryland. Attaboy Beer opened in January.
[Left, Carly and Brian Ogden talk to Franchot at Attaboy Beer]
