Brewery bills fail in committee

Posted On February 12, 2015

Re-posted from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle,  February 11, 2015.

Bills would have raised production cap, allowed brewers to hold liquor licenses

HELENA — Two bills aimed at loosening regulations around craft brewing in Montana failed narrowly in the House Business and Labor Committee on Wednesday.

House Bill 326 would have allowed brewers to hold liquor licenses in addition to their brewing license — often called license stacking — and would have lifted the cap for production with a tasting room from 10,000 barrels to 60,000 barrels annually.

House Bill 336 would have raised the production capacity without the license stacking option. HB 326 was the product of two years of work by an industry coalition that included the Montana Brewers Association and the Montana Tavern Association, two groups not known for getting along.

“It’s unfortunate that the good effort between the vast majority of brewers and the Tavern Association is able to be killed by a small minority,” said John Iverson, lobbyist for the Tavern Association, just after the vote.

The Montana Beer and Wine Distributors Association pulled out of the coalition in December because of the license stacking option in the bill. Instead, the group got behind HB 336 as an alternative to the Brewers Association-backed license stacking bill, forming another coalition and arguing that the measure would force brewers into the state’s quota liquor license system. Both bills failed by a vote of 9-10 in the committee.

From Twitter:

Speaking in support of HB 326 before the vote, Rep. Chris Pope, D-Bozeman, said he hoped he didn’t regret supporting the measure but thought it was a compromise.
“I’m voting for 326 because I think it does less harm,” Pope said. “I believe there are folks who are going to be not happy with whatever we come up with here.”
The committee did not discuss HB 336 before the vote.
Several members of the committee expressed concern that neither bill had enough support from all the industry players, as several brewers had been outspoken against the license stacking bill alongside the Distributors Association. Some lawmakers proposed studying the issue for a better solution.
“We have been presented with the good faith efforts of the industry to find some compromise here,” said Rep. Chuck Hunter, D-Helena. “But I feel compromise has not really been reached.”
The bills were tabled after the failed vote, leaving them essentially dead, though a motion to reconsider could revive them.