From the Finger Lakes to the North Fork, New York State is home to more than 1,000 grape growers and nearly 300 wineries. So it should come as no surprise that Governor David Paterson is betting on bottles of wine to help rescue his state from its fiscal stupor – again.
In his 2010-2011 Executive Budget, delivered on Tuesday, January 19, Paterson unveiled his plan to leverage New York’s status as the third largest grape-growing region in the country. His proposal calls for the enactment of the Wine Industry and Liquor Store Revitalization Act – an update on failed legislation from last year – which would permit the sale of wine in 19,000 grocery stores and drug stores currently licensed to sell beer.
Unlike the early 2009 legislation, which did not survive last year’s budget negotiations, the updated bill, introduced in both the state senate and assembly in the summer, attempts to appease liquor store owners who had feared the initial legislation would have been detrimental to business.
The bill authorizes liquor stores to sell to retail establishments and allows them to install ATM machines and stock their shelves with items “complimentary to their business.”
According to proponents like New Yorkers for Growth and Open Markets – an alliance of growers, wineries, liquor stores and grocers – the plan would bolster the liquor and wine industries and provide consumers with more choice. Not to mention the fact that Paterson expects the related licensing fees – at $500 a pop – to generate $147 million over two years.
Patrick Hooker, the commissioner of the State Department of Agriculture and Markets, sees the proposal as a means to grow the economies in rural New York and Long Island – regions that produce 180 million bottles of wine each year, he recently told reporters on a conference call.
But not everyone sees it that way, notably a legion of liquor store owners who have formed The Last Store on Main Street Coalition to halt the Governor’s bid.
“He’s out of his mind,” Herbert Cheng, the owner of Bayside’s Golden Liquors and a Coalition member, said of Paterson. “All the smaller liquor stores would close down right away. It would just shut them down. Just imagining Walmart, Target housing these wines – I can’t even see it happening.”
Even so, Cheng felt the need to defend his turf and paid $5,000, along with other Coalition members, to hire a lobbyist. Cheng said the Governor is offering liquor store owners “everything that doesn’t make sense.” The only thing they get out of the bargain, he lamented, is the ability to sell cigars and newspapers, and most liquor stores have no room for anything besides their normal supply of wines and spirits.
In fact, the Paterson plan also provides owners like Cheng the opportunity to sell directly to other retailers and auction off their licenses. It also allows small shop owners to work together to make more cost-effective, joint purchases.
But as far as the Coalition is concerned, the legislation does much more harm than good.
“This is a phony compromise that only provides cover for the Big Box stores in their quest to destroy our business and squeeze out more corporate profits,” Coalition leader and New York State Liquor Store Association president Stefan Kalogridis said in a statement.
But just a few blocks down Bell Boulevard from Golden Liquors, Melissa Estevez was pleased with the Governor’s proposal. Estevez said her father’s C-Town Supermarket, which she helps to run, already offers low-alcohol wine – a big sell around the holidays.
Asked if the store would benefit from the ability to offer normal wine, Estevez was sanguine. “Absolutely,” she said. “It’s convenient, you don’t have to go anywhere else.” And apparently, if the legislation is approved, that includes the liquor store right next door.
“I’m sure it would hurt them,” Estevez said of the bill’s impact on her neighbor.
