Seeking More Alcoholic Beverage Licenses To Satisfy Demand Has Municipalities Headed To Beacon Hill
In Massachusetts, the quantity of liquor licenses available in any municipality in the state, including Boston, is governed by a statutory-based quota system. Towns seeking to spur economic development, however, may petition the Massachusetts State Legislature to have additional licenses issued beyond the statutorily permitted amount.
Currently, there are a number of bill amendments pending in the State Legislature for the grant of additional liquor licenses, including requests by the following municipalities: Bellingham (Senate Bill No. 2049 and No. 1943), Bolton (House Bill No. 3498), Braintree (House Bill No. 3677), Erving (Senate Bill No. 2093), Loeminster (House Bill No. 116), Milton (Senate Bill No. 2052), Salem (Senate Bill No. 1874) and Somerville (House Bill No. 3851).
With regard to Somerville’s request for more licenses, there appears to be wide support for new licenses beyond the current 84 all alcoholic beverage licenses and 16 beer and wine licenses it is currently limited to, but progress is reportedly slow on the Somerville home rule petition. Conversely, Waltham was recently granted 15 new liquor licenses but such a grant was protested by existing liquor license holders who claimed that Waltham’s stagnant population would not support those additional licenses and would cause existing restaurants and bars to go out of business.
The market place attendant to the supply and demand of liquor licenses remains therefore not only a legal and political issue for towns and cities in Massachusetts, but a crucial financial issue between the businesses that already have those scarce licenses and those businesses that want them.