Jump to content

Montgomery County Liquor Laws


Recommended Posts

So, does anyone know of any restaurants in MoCo that are taking advantage of the recently passed corkage law?

According to Adam Borden, President of Marylanders for Better Beer & Wine Laws the following places in Montgomery County allow corkage:

Bezu, Capital Grille , Clyde's Chevy Chase, Clyde's Rockville, Jaleo Lia's, Mon Ami Gabi, Newton's Table, Raku, Seasons 52, Society,

Thai Pavilion, Rockville

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, does anyone know of any restaurants in MoCo that are taking advantage of the recently passed corkage law? Effective July 1, corkage is legal, based on state law, not MoCo's inane practices.

The list of MoCo restaurants that permit corkage is on the county website at:

http://www6.montgomerycountymd...rovedwinecorkage.pdf

Unfortunately, as of today, it had not been updated since July 20th.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is anyone following this item from NBC-4 about Montgomery County's Department of Liquor Control?

Every drop of alcohol in Montgomery County must be purchased from the county's Department of Liquor Control's warehouse in Gaithersburg.

County Councilman Hans Riemer wants to change that.

"The report shows it doesn't have to be this way in Montgomery County," he told the News4 I-Team. "There is a way for us to reform how we handle liquor control in the county to protect public health and give people the choices they want."

Riemer said the report presents five different options for deregulating alcohol sales starting on page 85. The choices range from completely eliminating the agency to moving toward a system more like Virginia's.

<snip>

Riemer said even though some of the options could potentially eliminate more than a hundred jobs and lose $20-30 million a year in revenue, the money could be made up by charging private distributors for the privilege of selling the county's alcohol.

The News4 I-Team reached out to County Executive Ike Leggett for comment. His spokesman pointed us to the Chief Administrative Officer's official response in the report on page 107, stating, "In our opinion, local liquor control has served Montgomery County well. We have lower alcohol consumption and higher revenue for public purposes than other jurisdictions. There are not liquor stores on every corner."

He then lists multiple problems he has with the report, including his belief that "to 'make up' for the $30 million in revenue lost for the County" would "involve increasing fees and costs to County licensees and/or imposing a County liquor 'piggyback' tax."

The debate over funding and the future of the entire Department of Liquor Control will now be considered by the Council's new ad hoc committee on Feb. 27.

Published at 6:15 PM EST on Feb 10, 2015
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here’s an article from Bethesda magazine profiling the currently announced candidates for County Executive and their views on the County monopoly. They range from status quo to eliminating the monopoly and a hybrid in-between. Because I have not been following this topic during the pandemic, the assertion the system is now more efficient and customer-friendly is lost on me. The primary election is in late June 2022.
https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/county-executive-candidates-divided-on-montgomerys-alcohol-monopoly/
https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/county-executive-candidates-divided-on-montgomerys-alcohol-monopoly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Lydia R said:

Here’s an article from Bethesda magazine profiling the currently announced candidates for County Executive and their views on the County monopoly. They range from status quo to eliminating the monopoly and a hybrid in-between. Because I have not been following this topic during the pandemic, the assertion the system is now more efficient and customer-friendly is lost on me. The primary election is in late June 2022.
https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/county-executive-candidates-divided-on-montgomerys-alcohol-monopoly/
https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/county-executive-candidates-divided-on-montgomerys-alcohol-monopoly

This is one of my 'blood boiling' topics.  I'm sure the monopoly has improved under the prior manager (but he left two years ago).

Ehrlich's argument is that the current system brings in money for the county, therefore it's successful.  As a former consumer in the county, my counterpoint is that it's just a tax - we paid far, far more for beer and wine than our neighbors in any direction.  Much of that was siphoned off by employees who were paid far more than market rates with stupendous benefits.  The remainder was $30 million.  

I'm not against taxing people and spending that money on projects that are worth funding.  This system though is a huge tax that primarily funds a relatively few public sector union employees.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...