It ended up being a pretty light year on the Alcoholic Beverage Control front this General Assembly Session — but that was certainly no accident.

Leading up to the 2023 Session, our opponents were shopping legislation to allow for issuing of credit by wholesalers, central warehousing, uncontrolled self-distribution by craft brewers, retail-to-retail sales, and privatization, among other causes for concern. The VBWA worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure none of those issues saw the light of day — avoiding potentially politically damaging fights, where a loss or compromise would have adversely impacted your businesses.

On the issues that were ultimately taken up, we had another extremely successful Session. The two biggest being the creation of the Virginia Beer Distributing Company and the regulation of the placement of crossover products (more details on those bills below).

As we look post-session, we’re focusing on three key initiatives:

• New Legislator Education. This is a historic election year in Virginia, where there will be unprecedented turnover and partisan control for both chambers is up for grabs. Elections for all 140 seats will be held in newly court-drawn districts where incumbency was not a factor. As a result of redistricting, 34 members in the House of Delegates and 11 members of the Senate announced their retirement. In addition to the retirements, there are over a dozen competitive nomination contests where an incumbent could lose.

While most should win, it’s highly unlikely all will prevail, so there will be some new faces. And this is all before we get to November where not all legislators will win re-election. As such, most political observers are anticipating that there will be well over 50 new members of the General Assembly come January. That’s 50-plus new legislators who don’t know us, what we do, or the Three-Tier System. With that in mind, the VBWA is focusing on getting to know the incoming class before they’re sworn in. We’ll do this through warehouse tours and other in-district activities, so stay tuned as we’ll be in touch regarding scheduling something in your facility or market. More to come.

• ABC regulatory review. This will be a once-in-a-generation review of Virginia ABC’s tied house. Our focus will be on shoring up protections that could erode or be lost through changes, such as current regulations that prohibit wholesalers from issuing credit, changes in online advertising and who can pay for it, as well as the structure to volume discounts that maintains your control over your products. The VBWA will be filing comments advocating for your interests in this process. Additionally, ABC CEO Travis Hill will be our keynote speaker at our joint VBWA-VWWA convention in June at The Greenbrier, where he’ll discuss the Authority’s focus over the next few years.
• TTB review. As a direct result of the Biden Executive Order on Competition in the Marketplace, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is contemplating changes to the Federal Regulation within the alcohol space through a review of U.S. trade practices. Their focus will include exclusive outlets and tied houses. The VBWA will be filing comments advocating for your interests in this regulatory process. Our ABC counsel, Kevin McNally, dives deeper into the issue in his latest article.

In the end, 2023 is no different than any other year in that we’ll have plenty to do — but know that we’re up for it and hitting the ground running. Stay tuned as we navigate the regulatory process at the state and federal levels and keep abreast of developments with the 2023 election cycle. It’s going to be a fun year!

We hope to see you in June at the Convention.

Phil Boykin