[This memo is in process. version 1 – Jan. 16, 2024]
In 2024, certain amendments were made to New York’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Law (which governs the operation of the State Liquor Authority. https://sla.ny.gov/news/new-york-state-liquor-authority-announces-expansion-options-businesses-liquor-licenses-enacted.
According to the SLA, one of the changes was:
- Community Notification – Allows applicants to simultaneously apply for a license and notify their municipality, and provides the SLA will not act on the application for 30 days in order to allow time for municipal input in the licensing process.
As Greenberg Taurig law firm observed.
- Submission of Applications During Community Notice Period: The SLA had required that new retail liquor license applicants provide 30 days’ notice to the local community board (in NYC) or municipality (outside of NYC) before submitting applications to the SLA. Pursuant to the amendments, applicants must still provide this notice, but they may submit their applications while the 30-day notice period is pending rather than having to wait at least 30 days. This may allow applicants to shave a few weeks off the application process, which may take 10 months or more for new applications to be processed by the SLA.
In attempting to decipher the actions of the Assembly, please look at the last item taken from the 2023 Annual Report of the NYS Assembly Standing Committee on Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry
This is not clear, but suggest that attention was paid to this issue.
• Alcohol Beverage Control
The Legislature modified the Executive proposal to extend temporary retail permits for one year.
The Legislature included language to amend the Alcoholic Beverage Production Credit amounts for wine and liquor with the intent to provide parity to the various small producers of these New York State beverages. o The Legislature rejected the Executive proposal to direct the State Liquor Authority (SLA) to review and re-write the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law.
The Legislature rejected the Executive proposal to authorize the State Liquor Authority to issue temporary permits to applicants with pending wholesale license applications.
The Legislature rejected the Executive proposal to issue pending applications for permission to make a corporate change to be deemed approved if the State Liquor Authority does not act within 90-days.
The Legislature rejected the Executive proposal to allow a State Liquor Authority license applicant to submit a required notice to a municipality and an application to the SLA on the same day.
The present Assembly membership of this committee is shown here.
