The House passed House Bill 290 yesterday 40-1. This bill makes permanent a policy allowing bars and restaurants to sell to-go alcoholic beverages and utilize extended outdoor seating, allowing customers to support their favorite bars and restaurants during the ongoing pandemic. These practices are slated to expire at the end of March unless the sunset is removed.
Only State Representative Paul Baumbach voted no, likely for reasons related to having this bill be an end-run around the existing permit and hearing process for approval of outdoor seating at restaurants and bars.
| House Bill 290 Sponsors | Yes Votes | No Votes |
| Schwartzkopf, Bush, Carson, Heffernan, K.Johnson, Longhurst, Morrison, Osienski, Briggs King, Ramone, Gray, D.Short, M.Smith, Smyk, Yearick | House Passes 40-1. Bennett Bentz Bolden Brady Bush Carson Chukwuocha Cooke Dorsey-Walker Griffith Heffernan K.Johnson K.Williams Kowalko Lambert Longhurst Lynn Matthews Minor-Brown Mitchell Morrison Osienski S.Moore Schwartzkopf Wilson-Anton Briggs King Collins D.Short Dukes Gray Hensley M.Smith Morris Postles Ramone Shupe Smyk Spiegelman Vanderwende Yearick | Baumbach |
| Lopez, Pettyjohn, Wilson, Poore | ||
| Current Status: | Sent to the Senate. |
The Bill still does not require that a food order be part of the ability to purchase alcohol. Further, liquor stores can’t do curbside pickup but restaraunts can. Doesn’t seem fair or in line with Covid guidelines.
lol, you don’t seem to understand the spirit of the bill…..liquor stores were never placed in peril….in fact they saw increased sales and revenue. Restaurants used to derive significant revenue from alcohol sales. The bill is intended to supplement businesses that loss from in house dining. Anyone who doesn’t understand this is clearly in the liquor store lobby which of course should be clapped down by legal sales in grocery and convenience store sales. For example….I buy all my beer from Wawa in Florida…..DFH, Racer 5, etc….