bashe
Well-Known Member
Alabama Senate committee votes for stronger beer | montgomeryadvertiser.com | Montgomery Advertiser
Alabama Senate committee votes for stronger beer
Associated Press February 11, 2009
Efforts to allow stronger beer to be sold in Alabama are brewing again in the state Legislature, with a Senate panel Wednesday approving the sale up to 13.9 percent by volume.
Free the Hops, a statewide group of beer consumers, has been trying for four years to legalize stronger beer in Alabama. The Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee unanimously approved the latest measure that moves to the full Senate, where it could come up for a vote as early as next week.
The legislation would permit selling many gourmet beers in grocery stores and restaurants that can't be offered in Alabama now because they exceed the alcohol limit, said Stuart Carter, president of Free the Hops. They include Russian imperial stouts, Trappist beers from Belgium, and products from many small American breweries.
Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia have the nation's tightest cap on beer at 6 percent alcohol by volume, with all other states having a higher limit or none, Carter said.
The higher alcohol volume measure did not sit well with Joe Godfrey, executive director of the Alabama Citizen Action Program. He said the church-based lobbying group opposes the bill because stronger beer will get consumers drunk quicker.
"Study after study has shown the more accessible alcohol is and the more potent it is, the more damage it does," he said.
Free the Hops' efforts to get stronger beer fell so flat in 2007 that the House gave its annual Shroud Award for the deadest bill to its sponsor, Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville.
Last year, Jackson got his bill through the House. The issue came to a head in the Senate on the final day of the 2008 session when the beer bill died again.
This year, Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, and was able to get the committee he chairs to approve it the second week of the 15-week-long session.
Senate Rules Committee Chairman Lowell Barron, who recommends which bills the Senate considers each day, said the bill's future hinges on whether the new legislative session is filled with stalling tactics like last year.
"It will probably pass if we can get things moving in the Senate. I don't detect much opposition," he said.
Jackson is sponsoring an identical version of the bill in the House, which is scheduled to be considered by the House Tourism and Travel Committee on Feb. 18.
Besides the beer bill, the Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee also approved two measures that would increase the amount of alcohol that can be in wine sold in Alabama grocery and convenience stores. The current limit is 14.9 percent alcohol by volume. One bill would take it to 16.5 percent and the other to 24 percent for most types of wine.
It also approved a bill that would allow the city councils in 14 Alabama cities to schedule public referendums on whether to legalize Sunday alcohol sales. The cities are Tuscaloosa, Gadsden, Anniston, Decatur, Dothan, Florence, Selma, Alexander City, Athens, Enterprise, Ozark, Sheffield, Sylacauga and Talladega. Several other cities already allow Sunday sales.
A similar bill won approval in the House in 2007 and died in the Senate.
Ben Jenkins, spokesman for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, said 35 states have Sunday liquor sales, with 13 allowing it since 2002. His organization is promoting the legalization as a way for governments to get more tax revenue during the recession.
Alabama Senate committee votes for stronger beer
Associated Press February 11, 2009
Efforts to allow stronger beer to be sold in Alabama are brewing again in the state Legislature, with a Senate panel Wednesday approving the sale up to 13.9 percent by volume.
Free the Hops, a statewide group of beer consumers, has been trying for four years to legalize stronger beer in Alabama. The Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee unanimously approved the latest measure that moves to the full Senate, where it could come up for a vote as early as next week.
The legislation would permit selling many gourmet beers in grocery stores and restaurants that can't be offered in Alabama now because they exceed the alcohol limit, said Stuart Carter, president of Free the Hops. They include Russian imperial stouts, Trappist beers from Belgium, and products from many small American breweries.
Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia have the nation's tightest cap on beer at 6 percent alcohol by volume, with all other states having a higher limit or none, Carter said.
The higher alcohol volume measure did not sit well with Joe Godfrey, executive director of the Alabama Citizen Action Program. He said the church-based lobbying group opposes the bill because stronger beer will get consumers drunk quicker.
"Study after study has shown the more accessible alcohol is and the more potent it is, the more damage it does," he said.
Free the Hops' efforts to get stronger beer fell so flat in 2007 that the House gave its annual Shroud Award for the deadest bill to its sponsor, Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville.
Last year, Jackson got his bill through the House. The issue came to a head in the Senate on the final day of the 2008 session when the beer bill died again.
This year, Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, and was able to get the committee he chairs to approve it the second week of the 15-week-long session.
Senate Rules Committee Chairman Lowell Barron, who recommends which bills the Senate considers each day, said the bill's future hinges on whether the new legislative session is filled with stalling tactics like last year.
"It will probably pass if we can get things moving in the Senate. I don't detect much opposition," he said.
Jackson is sponsoring an identical version of the bill in the House, which is scheduled to be considered by the House Tourism and Travel Committee on Feb. 18.
Besides the beer bill, the Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee also approved two measures that would increase the amount of alcohol that can be in wine sold in Alabama grocery and convenience stores. The current limit is 14.9 percent alcohol by volume. One bill would take it to 16.5 percent and the other to 24 percent for most types of wine.
It also approved a bill that would allow the city councils in 14 Alabama cities to schedule public referendums on whether to legalize Sunday alcohol sales. The cities are Tuscaloosa, Gadsden, Anniston, Decatur, Dothan, Florence, Selma, Alexander City, Athens, Enterprise, Ozark, Sheffield, Sylacauga and Talladega. Several other cities already allow Sunday sales.
A similar bill won approval in the House in 2007 and died in the Senate.
Ben Jenkins, spokesman for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, said 35 states have Sunday liquor sales, with 13 allowing it since 2002. His organization is promoting the legalization as a way for governments to get more tax revenue during the recession.
