bringing New Jersey out of the prohibition era one of the key proposals Governor Murphy will roll out during his annual budget address next week will include updates to the state's outdated liquor license laws which are limited to one permit for every 3 000 residents in a town and restaurant owners pay dearly sometimes up to seven figures for a license proponents like the governor argue the system unfairly shuts out business owners who can't afford the cost but for anyone who's already shelled out the cash to own a permit this debate is not up for discussion senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan was with Governor Murphy today as he tried to shore up support it's crucial because we lost a lot of um diners coming in you know and it doesn't seem like they're really coming back the owner of pru Thai restaurant in Clinton badly wants a liquor license to boost his revenues which the pandemic cut in half he figures serving cold beer and wine with spicy meal Wheels could rescue the 80 seat Eatery but this Tiny Town of 2700s got no liquor licenses left to sell under Jersey's Antiquated laws which cap licenses at one per three thousand residents I spoke to somebody about it a while back and they said corn don't even try Hunterdon County is full of small communities you've got Flemington you've got uh Tewksbury You've Got High Bridge we're all small towns with small populations and we are locked out of the liquor licenses Clinton's mayor joined a round table at prutai where Governor Murphy again promoted his plans to update Jersey's liquor laws which date back to Prohibition The Proposal would phase out the current license cap over five years and price new licenses on an affordable sliding scale depending on location Jersey liquor licenses can cost more than a million dollars a pop if you can get one one businessman described bidding on a license in South Orange my town has had two dormant licenses and I actually put a bid for six hundred thousand dollars for a license and it's been crickets for six months the fact that some of our Arcane liquor laws uh are from the prohibition era and that is artificially keeping out New Market entrants I think there's a disproportionate impact on uh aspiring minority entrepreneurs and small business owners the plan would also update regulations that restrict breweries Wineries and distilleries from hosting events and serving meals having a brewery uh given the ability to serve food this makes sense to me this is not easy there's no magic as to why now I would ask why didn't we do this in the 40s that would be my response this is 80 or 90 years overdue the push to reform liquor license laws got an icy reception from Jersey's beverage industry which fears flooding the marketplace with new licenses could hurt established businesses we understand that there's a need for licenses we know that the downtowns need some help and we feel that there's a way of doing it that's a more fair and Echo way um preserving the fair market value of the liquor licenses that are currently out there industry execs don't like the idea of using tax credits to reimburse current license owners but one restaurant owner who bought a license in Elizabeth eight years ago welcomes the reforms since we have more competition we'll bring more people into the towns and just leave the kind of like the selfish part you know on the side and then work together as as a family he said there's plenty for everybody in Clinton I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news [Music]