Governor Murphy's plan to overhaul the state's outdated liquor laws appears headed for trouble with a divided legislature and dueling ideas over just how to do it so far proposed legislation rewriting the rules isn't getting much support from lawmakers and the controversial issue could remain stalled with all 120 members up for election this year Ted Goldberg has the story Governor Phil Murphy has advocated for New Jersey to overhaul its liquor laws a holdover from just after prohibition the bill he's endorsed is wide-ranging and likely Dead on Arrival in Trenton I think the governor's proposal to expand liquor licenses um does not have a lot of support in the legislature that's just my opinion state senator Paul sarlo said that during a budget hearing last week New Jersey's liquor laws allow a limited number of licenses for restaurants one per 3000 in each municipality limited Supply leads to intense demand and some of the licenses sell for more than a million dollars business people and politicians worry that cheaper licenses could kneecap restaurateurs that had to spend a bundle to sell booze these business owners had to pay these prices for the way the system is set up currently so it's not their fault an insure it's an investment and we understand and all Investments are risks however they went into the system with the rules that they had to follow it's a concern I've heard from many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle uh once the governor introduced his conversation around this topic Aaron Ryan owns common lot an upscale restaurant in Melbourne that doesn't have a liquor license they keep using the term investment I too have Investments and my investments are constantly fluctuating and and so should the uh so should the market he's seen Governor Murphy's Bill get splintered into three separate and smaller bills Senator Troy Singleton's bill would force pocket license holders or those with licenses unattached to a restaurant to sell elsewhere in their County within two years Ryan says that won't help smaller restaurants what the pocket licenses are doing is basically propping up the secondary Market which is which is the root of all this problem there's only 1400 pocket licenses yet there's 20 plus 20 plus thousand byos in the entire State the odds are still against the small mum and pop restaurants that can't afford a hundred thousand dollars we're going to increase more Supply into the marketplace which in turn should put downward pressure on pricing um I'm excited about that possibility because I do believe we need to find a way to make the licenses more uh less less expensive the bill Murphy backed also made changes to brewery regulations dropping some rules that Brewers thought were too onerous and cost them money it definitely needed some tweaks uh during the legislative process but it was something that honestly had a lot of priorities of ours Eric Orlando leads the Brewers Guild of New Jersey he's heard a ton of complaints about the new Brewery rules that took effect last summer which include limits on how many public events breweries can hold and a new requirement that breweries give tours to first-time customers Orlando hopes a bill passes before July 1st when licenses are up for Renewal and Rule changes take effect we think that we're much different than some of the other alcohol issues they're being discussed the other alcohol issues have been around for Generations this is something of an emergency nature that needs to be handled now Ryan says common lot won't close immediately if he can't get a liquor license he just says he's not sure if staying open long term is a viable option and he doubts new restaurateurs will want to give New Jersey a try if getting a liquor license is always this difficult and expensive for NJ Spotlight news I'm Ted Goldberg [Music]