By Phil Boykin, VBWA President & CEO

There are nearly 800 bills still awaiting final action with just a few days before the General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn, or “Sine Die.”
The single biggest issue hanging over the General Assembly: Virginia’s budget. The House of Delegates and Senate budget negotiators were expected to meet over the weekend. That doesn’t leave long to work out the high-profile issues where there is significant disagreement, such as “gray games,” Metro transit funding, and the Governor’s Monumental arena proposal.
Any agreement between the House and Senate does not bind the Governor, who will definitely have his say when the budget gets to him. For example, the General Assembly will likely send over a budget assuming revenues from marijuana taxes, but it’s widely expected that he will veto the bills creating a legal marketplace for pot, thereby putting a significant hole in projected revenues.
Besides him weighing in on the aforementioned matters, you can expect the Governor to push his previously stalled tax reform proposals and oppose the hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes and fees for technology services put forth by both chambers. On the ABC front, we’ll be curious to see if the Administration targets the budget language making ABC fully independent or focus on higher priority matters. Bottom line: Despite the official adjournment date, we have a long way to go and fully expect there to be a special session to work out the budget which could run well into the summer.

As always during the Session, we are meeting weekly with the VBWA Board of Directors to review bills/amendments and receive advice on strategy to determine VBWA’s adopted positions.

Here’s a look at the bills we are tracking; updates are offered if applicable. For bill details, click the bill number link.

Food-to-Beverage Ratio

SB 168 (Reeves): Would reduce the current 45% food-to-beverage ratio for certain mixed beverage licensees. The bill requires that a mixed beverage restaurant, caterer’s, or limited caterer’s licensee meet or exceed the following: (i) for such licensees with monthly food sales of at least $4,000 but less than $10,000, the food-to-beverage ratio shall be 35 percent and (ii) for such licensees with monthly food sales of at least $10,000, there shall be no food-to-beverage ratio requirement imposed.

With the retirement of Sen. Dick Salaw, we’re on the cusp of seeing significant reform of the Commonwealth’s food-to-beverage ratio policy for spirits. Sen. Bryce Reeves (R-Fredericksburg) pushed his bill out of the Senate 40-0, but met resistance in the House when long-standing opponents of reform came out in force to express concerns. It appears the bill is likely to go into conference where a final compromise can be negotiated. The VBWA is neutral on the issue since it’s a fight between restaurant owners, but we are closely tracking the bill. ABC testified that the Reeves bill would “free up” an additional 10,000 man hours for other enforcement activities.

Building Service Employees

  • The latest: The patrons agreed to exclude the beer and wine wholesalers, so we provided them with language and we are working to get the amendments into the bills. 

SB247 (McPike) HB951 (Lopez): These bills provide that a county, city, or town may pass an ordinance to prohibit subcontracts for building maintenance employees to be fired when the subcontract ends. The bills as originally drafted were not of concern to wholesalers. Once broadened in Committee, we have concerns because they could apply to wholesalers, and we are now opposed. The Senate patron accepted our amendments to exempt beer and wine distributors and the House patron has agreed to do the same. That said, the Senate Finance committee carried over the Senate bill because of an “undetermined fiscal impact” to the Commonwealth, effectively killing the proposals for the year.

New ABC Licensing Privileges 

HB101 (Tata), HB559 (Ballard), HB1117 (Carr), HB1118 (Carr), HB1298 (Williams), SB 180 (DeSteph) & SB 400 (Deeds): This year a number of new additions to the “Christmas tree” of performing art facility licenses exceptions. We continue to monitor each of them individually, and anticipate at least a few more before the session is over. It seems with each passing year more and more localities want to have their facility added to the list of those granted exceptions to the mixed beverage rules. A few of these bills have moved forward so far, and we continue to monitor all of them.

Commending Resolutions 

HR246 (Sullivan/Kent) & SJ180 (McDougle): Recognizing Walter Marsden’s significant contributions to the Commonwealth, Del. Richard C. “Rip” Sullivan Jr. (D-McLean) and Del. Hillary Pugh Kent (R-Warsaw) as well as Sen. Ryan McDougle (R-Mechanicsville) introduced commending resolutions celebrating the life of longtime VBWA Counsel, Walter Marsden.

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