"Not everyone sees the bills that way. Republican Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli voted no on the 2012 bill and said while he supports the brewers’ innovations he worries that allowing them to host food trucks could devalue restaurateurs’ costly liquor licenses, some of which have sold for up to $1 million, he said." Bull. This just means the NJ Restaurant Association is in his pocket. The entire liquor license scam in this state needs a complete overhaul, starting with getting rid of the whole license-as-property crap. A liquor license should be an annual fee paid to the state, nothing more. Sorry if you paid $700K for your "license" a couple of years ago, but that was the cost of doing business then and you agreed to it. It shouldn't hold everyone back from progress that will be an overall benefit to the state. And there should be multiple tiers of licenses, like many other states (including PA) have. I would want to serve only beer and a limited wine/mead/cider selection, no liquor; there needs to be an option for that which doesn't require a lottery win to get.
Everything you say is true but won't happen anytime soon. This bill can and should pass. Calling your assemblyman or women doesn't take long and helps.
A politician doing something that actually benefits the general public? But how will he fund his re-election campaign?
Already done... every little bit helps, but boy we've got a long way to go in NJ just to approach parity with many other states.
Completely agree. Was up in New York last weekend and they get it right. If NJ's laws were on par with NY, we'd see an explosion in NJ. NY makes it part of its agritourism and has invested in craft as homegrown businesses. It'd be nice if we could say NJ did the same.
