I abstain from alcohol, so, with aside from the giganto-mundo HB 1070 revision of hooch laws, I haven’t been blogging much about to the 23 bills tagged “Alcoholic Beverages” in the Legislative hopper.
Permit me thus to yield the floor to local craft brewer Brodie Mueller, who spoke to legislators (and got responses from Senators Brock Greenfield and Al Novstrup) about two bills affecting his trade at the Aberdeen crackerbarrel Saturday.
Mueller says he and his fellow brewers prefer Senate Bill 169, since it would give brewers the option to sell through a distributor or sell directly to licensed sellers. Senate Bill 173, on the other hand, is backed by the distributors, because, says Mueller, it will preserve the three-tier system that protects the distributors’ business model.
Note that Senator Greenfield addresses actual details of the bills in question; Senator Novstrup simply lurches up to the mic to burble more platitudes about free enterprise and the Legislative process serving the little guy, justify his vote for each of the competing bills in committee as a way to keep discussion going, and hope someone else will figure out a compromise for him.
The Governor’s Office and the Koch Brothers (via Americans for Prosperity) are backing the brewers against the distributors, Anheuser-Busch, and MillerCoors. Advocacy by Governor Daugaard and the Koch Brothers ought to make a bill an automatic NO for me… but if SB 169 helps small local entrepreneurs compete with big corporations and sell more locally produced ales (which I will never drink, but my wife may enjoy), then I may have to cheer alongside Dennis, Charles, David, and Don for SB 169 when it comes to the Senate floor.
Both SB 169 and SB 173 are on Monday’s Senate calendar.
If legislator Arch Beal has tried to distribute craft beers, or if his contract with the large beer companies even allow him to distribute small brewers product, then it might be a free market.
Lurching, burbling, and whistling, oh my.
Small business does not have a chance here in South Dakota..unless it is subsidized