With the enactment of the FY2025 Budget, the State Liquor Authority is highlighting significant changes to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law. These measures will continue Governor Hochul’s goal of modernizing the state’s often-antiquated ABC laws by injecting common sense and collaboration into New York’s alcohol industry.
“This 24-25 budget process is a successful one for our agency,” said State Liquor Authority Chair Lily Fan. “It has been our long-standing intention to seek changes to our statute that would allow us to better support our applicants and licensees. We wholeheartedly thank the Governor, her team, and our partners in both Houses for approving and delivering this package of improvements that will help members of our industry operate better. We look forward to continuing to support the modernization effort in the future while ensuring public safety, health, and welfare.”
Several proposals included in this year’s budget are recommendations from a report issued in May 2023 by the Commission to Study Reform of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law. Other items in the FY25 Enacted Budget address outdated statutes while enhancing the customer experience with more options to support a key cog in the State’s economy.
In the FY2023 Budget, Governor Hochul tasked the temporary Commission to Study Reform of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law, 21-members comprised of state agency heads and a diverse set of industry stakeholders, with voting to recommend changes to modernize and simplify the state’s 90-year-old ABC Law. Their efforts resulted in 18 recommendations to be considered for future legislative changes by the New York State Legislature.
Governor Hochul signed two of those recommendations into law in October of 2023, while three more are included in this year’s Enacted Budget:
- Alcohol To-Go – A 5-year extension will allow for the current “drinks to go” provision to continue through 2030, with those 5 years commencing from 2025.
- Community Notification – Allows applicants to simultaneously apply for a license and notify their municipality, and provides the SLA will not act on the application for 30 days in order to allow time for municipal input in the licensing process.
- One-Day Event Permits – Expands one-day special event permits to allow for the service of liquor. These one-day permits were previously restricted to beer and wine. This change creates parity for New York craft beverage manufacturers, in addition to providing catering businesses more opportunities by expanding their offerings.
- Temporary Wholesaler Permits – Creates a new permit to allow for wholesale applicants to obtain a temporary permit while their license is pending, allowing these businesses to begin operations more expeditiously.
Other business and guest-friendly measures include:
- Expanding Catering permits – The budget removes the requirement mandating catering permits be issued only for indoor functions or events, expanding opportunities for the hospitality industry and their customers.
- Wine/Liquor Stores at Street Level – The budget eliminates a Prohibition era law that required liquor stores to be located at street level in order to qualify for a license.
- Temporary Retail Permits – Extends the issuance of temporary retail permits to get businesses open and operating quickly.
- Allowing Liquor Beverage Sales in Movie Theaters - The Budget allows for the service of spirits, in addition to beer and wine, at movie theaters that do not meet the definition restaurants, which required a full kitchen with meals served to guests seated at tables. Previously, movie theaters not operating as restaurants were limited to beer and wine only.
- Makes Outdoor Dining Permanent – The budget makes permanent the service of alcohol on contiguous and non-contiguous municipal space, with the authorization of the municipality and the SLA, in addition to addressing service across bike lanes, thereby eliminating statutory ambiguity. This highly successful pandemic-era policy provision was set to expire on July 5, 2025.
