A bill aimed at increasing consumer options for purchasing alcoholic beverages died in legislative committee over the past week, as the state’s General Assembly entered the final phase of its 2015 session.
Legislation sponsored by Sen. Brian Feldman, D-Potomac, that was intended to boost Potomac-based Total Wine & More by expanding the number of liquor licenses that the nationwide retailer could hold statewide, was rejected Tuesday by an 8-1 vote in the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee. That prompted the sponsor of companion legislation, Del. Charles Barkley, D-Germantown, to pull it from the agenda of the House Economic Matters Committee a day later.
The defeat of Feldman’s legislation to permit an individual to hold up to two retail liquor store licenses statewide, doubling the current limit of one per person, underscored the difficulties of winning changes in a state liquor control structure that has largely been in place since the Prohibition era more than 80 years ago.
After unsuccessfully pushing the bill to loosen restrictions on so-called Class A licenses in the prior two legislative sessions, Feldman was optimistic he might be able to secure passage this year, thanks in part to a significant turnover in the membership of the General Assembly following the 2014 election. He also secured the backing this year of Sen. Joan Carter Conway, a Baltimore Democrat who chairs the committee with jurisdiction over the legislation.
But the bill continued to meet with strong opposition from the influential Maryland State Licensed Beverage Association, which represents so-called “mom and pop” liquor store owners around the state; dozens of the group’s members showed up to express their concern at recent House and Senate hearings. In last Tuesday’s action by the Senate committee, only Sen. Cheryl Kagan, D-Rockville, one of two Montgomery County members on the panel, voted in favor of the bill. Sen. Karen Montgomery, D-Brookeville, joined seven other senators in giving it an unfavorable recommendation.
Conway, despite her co-sponsorship of the measure, opted to abstain after it became apparent the bill was going to be defeated. The large number of small private liquor stores in Baltimore gives the beverage association particular clout in her home jurisdiction.
“It’s unfortunate that a Montgomery County, Maryland-headquartered business is unable to modestly grow in the state at the same time it’s growing elsewhere in the nation,” Feldman said after the vote. Total Wine & More, whose corporate offices are located in Potomac just outside his district, is the country’s largest privately held retailer of beer, wine and distilled spirits—with more than 100 stores in 15 states.
But Maryland law has limited the owners of the company, David and Robert Trone, to two stores in the state, with one owner holding the license for a store in Towson and the other for a retail outlet in Laurel. The company has said the Laurel store, and another one across the Potomac River in McLean, Virginia, are deriving 20 percent to 25 percent of their sales from Montgomery County residents.
However, even if Feldman’s bill had passed, it is unclear how soon Total Wine & More might have sought to open a store here. Company officials have said their business model conflicts with the county’s unusual public liquor control structure, which restricts distilled spirits sales to county-owned stores and limits the varieties of beer and wine readily available for retail purchase in private stores.
An ad hoc committee of the County Council is now considering changes to the county’s current liquor sales and distribution regimen, with recommendations not expected until this summer. Any such changes would then require approval of the General Assembly, which would consider them no earlier than the annual session that convenes next January. The current legislative session is scheduled to adjourn April 13.
