Texas Beer-Related Legislation Watch

Now if we could only get liquor stores open on Sunday's....

 

Some of this stuff is absolutely no brainer type legislation. Amazes me we have morons in .gov who would think otherwise.

 

Can't they just look at other states who have had sane beer laws for decades and realize they have not devolved into dystopian alcoholic anarchy?

Campaign contribution issues are so sketchy. Seems like "legal" bribery in some instances.

 

Quick update from OTT on HB3389. Click through for a link to contact the rep.

 

It would be nice but I don't think the liquor store lobby cares enough to push for it. I've talked to a couple local store owners and the consensus seems to be that people know the law and plan accordingly. So long as everyone has to be closed on Sunday, they're ok with it. I could be totally off, and it was just casual conversations that led me to this conclusion, so correct me if there's evidence otherwise.

 

I just sent her a pretty detailed email. We'll see what the reply is

 

Blah blah blah importance of the three-tier system etc... She doesn't give a shit, she's bought and paid for by the distributors.

 

Florida has a law right now limiting the number of bottles of liquor that a distillery can sell on site to 2 per person per calendar year per distillery. I know, because I just bought my limit at a distillery in Sarasota this past week, stopped into Siesta Key Rum. They scanned my driver's license and the info on how many bottles you purchased gets stored on a server. If you scan your ID again in a calendar year and try to buy more from the same distillery, apparently it will come up on the computer that you have already got your limit. So, I could see scanning IDs very similar to what Florida is doing. It was pretty simple.

 

I think that's a good idea and see that being a viable solution. The question still remains - who pays for it? While it's a simple software problem, someone still has to hire out a software team to build it and more importantly maintain it. I wouldn't hold high hopes for state employees writing it and if you contract out to a software team you're going to be paying 3x what it should actually cost. Someone also has to pay for the server space. Maybe get Hillary to host it on her private servers? Presumably the same software team that builds the back end also builds the front end client side which from what I've seen at most breweries means it has to be compatible with a mobile platform so then you need to find someone (hopefully still the same software team) that can do mobile apps.

I really want this to pass and I'm not trying to bring it down. But this is going to cost money whether the state pays for it up front then charges the breweries some licensing fee who then pass the cost onto us the consumer or breweries buy some third party something for a hella lot of money that they then pass on to us the consumer.

 

Yeah I know, just want to hear it I guess. Her Contributors (4 obvious ones for this bill)
Name Total Amount # Contributions
Beer Alliance of Texas PAC $25,500 11
Licensed Beverage Distributors PAC $13,300 10
Texas Beverage Alliance of Texas Package Stores Assn. $9,000 4
Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas PAC $12,368 13

 

Not everyone seems to excited for this

 

Agreed. In college I interned for a TX Senator. Interns read the letters and report back on which ones were of multitude. It matters tho when so many come in on same issue...so write, call and visit!

 

Emailed here with this info

 

Looks like this is also in the discussion.

 

Emailed Rep. Thompson today concerning 3389 as well. Not expecting much of a response, but we shall see.

 

Would the liquor stores want to be open on Sunday? It seems like from the liquor store's perspective it would increase payroll and operating expenses but not increase demand.

I would like to be able to buy beer on Sunday mornings at the grocery store.