Happy hour? More licenses for Boston? Senate set to take up liquor reform. - The Boston Globe (2024)

A new wrinkle in the Senate version is a renewed effort to bring happy hour back to Massachusetts. Drink specials have been off-limits in Massachusetts for 40 years, since local lawmakers inspired by anti-drunk-driving campaigns became the first in the nation to ban such promotions in 1984. But an amendment filed to the economic development bill filed by Senator Julian Cyr, who represents the Cape and Islands, hopes to allow cities and towns to once again offer discounts on alcoholic beverages — such as two-for-the-price-of-one beers, or half-off shots — at least before 10 p.m.

“In a Commonwealth where costs are soaring statewide and our young populations are leaving at alarming rates, there are fewer opportunities for people of all ages to build community and enjoy the conviviality of our neighborhoods,” Cyr said. “Happy hour would not solve all of that. ... But opening the door to happy hour will help Massachusetts reset itself as a place people want to work and want to pay.”

If it feels like deja vu, Cyr pushed for a similar amendment two years ago that was later nixed during negotiations on Beacon Hill. He tried again with another standalone bill to revive happy hour specials to no avail. (The happy hour amendment was first reported Wednesday by Politico.)

State Senators Patrick O’Connor, a Weymouth Republican, and Lydia Edwards, a Boston Democrat, have been behind an effort to drop the longstanding requirement that only US citizens can obtain a liquor license in Massachusetts. That has been a barrier to immigrants who are permanent residents from getting a license. Now that change has been inserted into the Senate economic package.

The Legislature originally passed the exclusionary language in 1938, Edwards said, as a way to prevent the state’s growing Irish immigrant population from holding liquor licenses. Today, the law is holding back immigrants who dominate the restaurant industry and want a liquor license to grow their businesses.

“It’s time to remove this horrible anti-immigrant, bigoted provision that serves no purpose,” said Edwards.

The separate, broader liquor license legislation was filed more than a year ago and has been billed as the most ambitious effort since Prohibition to expand liquor licenses in Boston. Six weeks ago, the House passed a version that would create 205 licenses, mostly in underserved neighborhoods — a number that is smaller than the 250 proposed in the original bill filed by state Senator Liz Miranda and state Representative Chris Worrell. As the measure moves to the Senate, Miranda says she’ll push for more, and other tweaks that she thinks will strengthen the House version.

“I want to make it the strongest bill possible,” she said. “I’ve been reviewing a bunch of different proposals. I haven’t vetted them all, but we’re hoping to get this done before the end of session.”

Among the changes Miranda and other Boston senators are weighing:

• Add more licenses, primarily in the same 12 ZIP codes designated in the House bill, to create around 240 new ones in all.
• Extend a handful of licenses to quasi-governmental agencies, such as the Massachusetts Port Authority and the Boston Planning & Development Agency. These agencies are also major landowners and having licenses helps them to attract diverse restaurant tenants to their properties. The idea builds on the House version, which sets aside 15 licenses for nonprofit organizations.
• Increase the number of so-called unrestricted licenses, which can be used anywhere in the city and sold for a profit, from 7 to as many as 12, while also adding guidelines that would ensure the licenses go to communities and entrepreneurs of color.
• Allowing Boston to create so-called umbrella licenses that would be attached to a large-scale development and can only be used for that project. It would be similar to how Dorchester’s South Bay Shopping Center received 15 licenses through special legislation.

The Legislature has long limited the number of liquor licenses that can be issued in most cities and towns. Boston hit its cap roughly two decades ago, just as the Seaport District was being developed. Today, there are just under 1,200 licenses to pour alcohol in Boston, according to the Boston Licensing Board. In most cases, acquiring a license for a new bar requires buying one from someplace that has closed. And the asking price for an unrestricted license to pour wine, beer, and co*cktails can often top $600,000.

Shirley Leung is a Business columnist and host of the Globe Opinion podcast “Say More with Shirley Leung.” Find the podcast on Apple, Spotify, and globe.com/saymore. Follow her on Threads @shirley02186

Shirley Leung is a Business columnist. She can be reached at shirley.leung@globe.com. Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com. Follow her @ditikohli_.