Lawmakers pass limit on liquor sales at Colorado grocery stores — as industry presses Gov. Polis to veto it

Colorado lawmakers have overwhelmingly handed a invoice that will cease any extra grocery shops from promoting exhausting liquor within the state. However the struggle over the measure is probably not over.

The Home and Senate, with bipartisan majorities, have each permitted Senate Invoice 33, and it was despatched to Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday. A gaggle backing grocery shops and retailers that will lose out on the licenses has known as on Polis to veto the measure over considerations about competitors — and didn’t rule out pursuing a brand new poll measure if he doesn’t halt the invoice.

The invoice is the newest flip within the state’s fights over liquor legal guidelines. If it turns into legislation, it could prohibit the state from issuing any extra liquor-licensed drugstore licenses. That sort of liquor license sometimes is held by giant grocery shops which have pharmacies on their premises.

Backers of the brand new invoice argue it could hold small liquor shops aggressive after years of turmoil within the business, significantly after grocery shops had been allowed full-strength beer and wine gross sales. The invoice doesn’t have an effect on beer and wine gross sales. A 2016 legislation allowed grocery shops with pharmacies to purchase this particular license, however provided that no retail liquor retailer operated inside 1,500 ft of it.

“It’s the best factor to do for small enterprise in Colorado,” Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Frisco Democrat and invoice sponsor mentioned of the invoice. “Not solely to assist our unbiased liquor shops that make use of locals, but in addition the craft brewers and craft distillers who can solely get a foothold out there if small unbiased liquor shops are open and thriving.”

He highlighted the broad help for the invoice from city and rural in addition to Democratic and Republican lawmakers. Solely eight members of the Home and 5 senators voted in opposition to the measure, out of 100 within the Common Meeting.

Coloradans merely don’t need kids or individuals in alcohol restoration to need to wander previous exhausting liquor each time they go to the grocery retailer, Roberts mentioned.

He known as this proposal a compromise in comparison with some prior volleys in Colorado’s liquor wars. Comparable laws tried in prior years would have eliminated at present held licenses as properly.

In 2016, Colorado lawmakers and then-Gov. John Hickenlooper struck a “historic compromise” to permit full-strength beer gross sales in main retailers. In 2022, voters permitted Proposition 125 to permit wine gross sales in grocery shops.

In keeping with USA TODAY, 20 states allowed the sale of all forms of alcohol — together with liquor — in grocery shops in 2023. The rest have some limits.

There are 36 energetic drugstore licenses within the state, based on nonpartisan state analysts. They count on the invoice will lead to about two dozen fewer such licenses being issued over the following two years than in any other case can be anticipated, if it turns into legislation. Holders of current licenses would have the ability to renew them.

Opponents of the invoice argue it could put a restrict on shopper selection and on small retailers trying to promote their licenses. Ray Rivera, who represents Coloradans for Client Selection, the chief opponents of the invoice, mentioned “Colorado is transferring backward” if it prevents giant grocers and retailers from promoting liquor.

He factors to voter help of the proposition to permit the sale of wine in grocery shops as proof that Coloradans need extra comfort when shopping for spirits. It additionally offers small retailers an “off-ramp” in the event that they’re attempting to promote their licenses throughout tumultuous occasions.

“A lot of grocers and retailers within the state, and different companions, are going to say we’ve labored collectively to create a regulatory system that works for everybody — and now that’s altering,” Rivera mentioned. “If the best for our members to accumulate licenses on this truthful setting goes away and this invoice isn’t vetoed, then we could also be pressured to go to the poll field.”