Today, the House Commerce Labor and Industry Committee met and passed the limited beer content compromise language that has been negotiated by KABR, KARLL and Uncork proponents.

The Committee approved the new language as a substitute bill for HB 2282, then inserted the new bill into SB 13 - a move called a “gut and go”.  The full House of Representatives could debate the bill as soon as Thursday.

Read Substitute for SB 13            Read the Supplemental Note for SB 13

Before taking action, the Committee had a full discussion of the proposal and questioned representatives of these organizations, as well as the Kansas Beer Wholesalers and Kansas Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association. 

Read the KABR statement here.   Read the KARLL comments here. 

In the meeting, Whitney Damron, KARLL; Amy Campbell, KABR; Tom Palace, Uncork Kansas; and Dick Stoffer, HyVee were each individually asked these questions by the Chairman and all responded yes to both questions. 

• 1.       “Are you and the members of your organization in support of the Substitute Bill for HB 2282?”
• 2.       “This legislation is a major, fundamental change in more than 60 years of state policy for the sale of intoxicating liquor products and is likely to have a marked impact on Kansas retailers as well as new licensees that will be allowed to sell CMB and a stronger beer product.  The substitute bill contains a requirement for ABC to conduct a market study and present its findings to the Legislature ten years following this bill’s enactment.  Do you and your clients believe this is a reasonable timeframe to allow for the impact of this law on all licensees to be measured before the Legislature considers additional, substantive changes to state law regarding where alcohol products are offered for sale?”

Lobbyist Tom Palace verified that Uncork was representing the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores Association, Casey’s General Stores, QuikTrip, Walmart, Dillons and HyVee and all support the agreement as stated above.

Read the notes here.

As word of this proposal has gotten around the Legislature, many have contacted us to learn about the legislation.  We are sharing information and helping them to connect with the retailers in their districts.  There has been appreciation from many legislators for the hard work that went into this effort.  It is obvious where our retailers have been actively involved and their legislators are very interested in how the proposal will work and how it will affect their communities and retailers in the future. 

In addition to the moratorium, a key piece of this proposal is that it will keep the CMB outlets separate from our state regulated retail liquor stores – requiring the more regulated liquor stores to handle stronger beer, wine and spirits – rather than following the pattern of Oklahoma, Colorado, Tennessee and Arkansas, where grocery stores are becoming liquor/wine retailers.

Click here for the list of House members.

The Legislature is scheduled to reach First Adjournment on Friday, April 7 – but there were rumors today that they might wind up this week a little early.  At this point, there is still no budget, no tax plan, no new school finance formula.  The Senate adopted a Rescission Budget today and the House is supposed to act tomorrow – that is the budget for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2017.  With all of these issues still pending, the veto session is unlikely to be short.

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REMEMBER TO RSVP FOR THE KANSAS CITY RETAILERS MEETING APRIL 21-22-23 HERE.  MAKE YOUR HOTEL RESERVATIONS NOW AT THE BEST WESTERN PREMIER KC SPEEDWAY INN AT 913-334-4440.