A measure that ties bars and restaurants’ ability to return to selling cocktails-to-go to a more controversial expansion of consumer access to liquor-based ready-to-drink cocktails won Senate approval on Wednesday.
By a narrow 26-24 vote, the chamber passed a Senate-amended bill that would allow increasingly popular liquor-based ready-to-drink cocktails to be sold in grocery stores, convenience stores, beer distributors, restaurants and bars.
That was added to a House-passed measure intended to help bars and restaurants recover from their COVID-19 pandemic-related financial hardships by permanently allowing them to sell up to a gallon of cocktails-to-go along with temporarily allowing expanded outdoor dining areas and other relief measures.
The measure now goes back to the House of Representatives for approval of the Senate changes. It was unclear on Wednesday afternoon if that chamber intended to consider it.
Critics see the ready-to-drink expansion as a step toward liquor privatization because currently these premixed ready-to-drink cocktails are only sold in Pennsylvania in state-owned liquor stores. It lacks Gov. Tom Wolf’s support.
While cocktails-to-go and ready-to-drink cocktails might sound like the same thing. There’s a difference.
Ready-to-drink cocktails are manufactured and sold in sealed containers that list their ingredients and alcohol content. The cocktails-to-go are made by bartenders and put in a to-go container.
Wolf, through his spokeswoman, criticized Senate Republicans for muddying up the bill by prioritizing certain special interests over granting relief to bars and restaurants.
“The governor is supportive of memorializing this relief for bars and restaurants by making cocktails-to-go permanent, but he does not support the ready-to-drink amendment,” said his spokeswoman Lyndsay Kensinger. “The administration remains hopeful that the Legislature will send a clean bill to his desk.”
Restaurant and bars’ temporary ability to sell up to a gallon of cocktails-to-go as well as other restaurant relief measures in the bill ended on Tuesday with the termination of the governor’s COVID-19 emergency disaster declaration.
The Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association on Tuesday urged senators to not include the ready-to-drink cocktails in the bill out of fear it would face a governor’s veto – and they saw the relief measures in the original bill as key to their recovery. That stance lasted one day.
On Wednesday, the association’s President & CEO John Longstreet sent a letter to senators reversing the group’s position to support the bill. He said the association’s members see the bill’s passage as the most expeditious course of action to delivering the much-needed relief to their businesses.
“We are running out of time and need to get a bill to the governor as soon as possible,” Longstreet stated in his letter to senators. “The restaurants in your district cannot afford to wait.”
The Senate-approved bill would limit the maximum alcohol-by-volume content of these ready-to-drink cocktails to 12.5%, which is comparable to what is in many beer products sold. The state’s liquor stores can sell ready-to-drink products with a higher alcohol volume.
It also limits the size of the canned cocktails to 16 ounces with a maximum total sale for off-premise consumption of 192 ounces unless sold by a beer distributor.
Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland County, said the Senate’s passage of the measure “sends a strong signal that we are moving the commonwealth in a direction of normalcy and transitioning from the restrictive control we were once living under during the COVID-19 emergency declaration.”
She added: “The bill will help jumpstart the economy by giving consumers convenience in spirit beverage choice, encourages bars, restaurants, and taverns to be open for business; and expands opportunities for small businesses.”
What’s more, she said it could generate more than $45 million in revenue for the commonwealth over the next five years.
During the Senate debate, Sen. Mike Regan, R-Cumberland/York counties, who authored the ready-to-drink amendment, called it a “historic step in evolving Pennsylvania’s liquor sales.”
He said the governor’s claim that the ready-to-drink provision provides no relief to the restaurant and bar industry is disingenuous because those businesses along with retailers, consumers and manufacturers will benefit from allowing these products to be sold at all places that have a liquor license.
Still, all 21 Democratic senators – along with Republican Sens. Michele Brooks of Mercer County and Robert “Tommy” Tomlinson of Bucks County and independent Sen. John Yudichak of Luzerne County – backed the governor’s position on the bill.
“This bill has turned into something to help our large beer wholesalers by giving them ready-to-go drinks, essentially what I call cocktail in a can,” said Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lehigh County.
“Some of these beer distributors have had their best year ever because of the pandemic. So instead of helping the restaurants and bars who were devastated and need the help, we’re helping those that don’t need the help,” she said.
Sen. Nikil Saval, D-Philadelphia, called it a “shameless ploy to privatize our liquor sales, which would funnel millions of dollars each year from our state’s budget and into the coffers of private corporations.”
Other Philadelphia Democrats said they didn’t like the fact that it would permanently allow stop-and-go convenience stores that sell alcoholic beverages that are prevalent in the southeast part of the state to sell more potent and a greater array of products. That would give those businesses a further competitive edge over bars and restaurants and potentially create a bigger nuisance for law enforcement, they said.
But Senate Appropriations Committee Pat Browne, R-Lehigh County, saw it as beneficial to the commonwealth in a couple ways.
“Doing this provision and advancing it into law will maximize not only value to the taxpayer but also consumer preference in a relevant product class that requires us to change in order to accommodate what the future provides,” Brown said.
Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.
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