Next time you venture into a drinking establishment, notice how many of the cold-beverages being served are a product of New York state. New York now is home to over 700 farm wineries, breweries, distilleries and cideries; more than 320 are beer breweries.
One of these is Anheuser-Busch InBev in Baldwinsville, a 370.43-acre site that produces Budweiser, Bud Light and 65 other products — including, but not limited to, Goose Island and Blue Point “craft” beers, Lime-A-Ritas, Spiked Seltzers and non-alcoholic Teavana teas — for the United States and three other countries. The Baldwinsville plant employs more than 400 workers. The company has said that it has helped to create 1,430 jobs in New York and has provided more than $32 million to the state through state and local taxes.
Since breweries are huge providers of economic benefits to CNY, in an effort to help strengthen this business, New York State recently initiated efforts to reduce the paperwork and other cumbersome requirements breweries face. These potential changes will hopefully foster a business environment which allows these companies to expand and further diversify their products.
In December 2016, Gov. Cuomo created legislation to modernize New York’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Law by expanding Sunday hours, allowing sales to begin at 10 a.m. instead of noon, and combining craft manufacturing licenses. This legislation also cuts the fees and reduced burdensome paperwork by requiring businesses in need of multiple manufacturing licenses to fill out only one application. Now breweries pay one $400 filing fee and fill out one 10-page application. This is ideal for applicants combing two or more of the following licenses: farm brewery, micro-brewery, farm cidery, farm winery, micro distillery, micro-rectifier and farm distillery.
Since December, more than 33 manufacturers received a combined license. The State Liquor Authority reports issuing about two licenses per month. Still, more than 104 current craft beverage manufacturers have not taken advantage of this combined license.
Furthering this effort, I have sponsored legislation this year that would remove the bureaucratic “red tape” from the beer label registration process. The legislation, A996, streamlines the process by permitting brand label registration applicants to submit their processing fee electronically, which eliminates the 30-day waiting period for approval by the New York State Liquor Authority for brand name labels that have already been approved by the Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. If signed into law, both large and small breweries would be able to offer new products in a quicker time frame to better compete in the growing beer industry.
As breweries become more competitive, New York is focused on making the state’s policies both business friendly and efficient. Cheers!
