Save Bureau of Liquor Enforcement

When my husband and I started our little brewery over 13 years ago, we thought that all the rules and regulations governing the alcoholic beverage industry were ridiculous, outdated and unnecessary. We were dead wrong. Maine currently enjoys one of the cleanest, most uncorrupt alcoholic beverage industries in the country because of the system that is currently in place.

The Bureau of Liquor Enforcement is the backbone of this system and the sole entity providing the structure for our industry to operate in. Under the current system, the people who oversee my license and beer excise tax payments are the same people responsible for holding me, my competitors and the large multi-national breweries and distilleries accountable to live by all of the regulations concerning alcohol.

The right hand always knows what the left hand is doing at the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement because they are the same. As a licensee, I therefore have a very strong incentive to follow those rules, as do my competitors. This system is efficient, effective and dependable. Eliminating this structure, and leaving a void, is very risky.

The Bureau of Liquor Enforcement’s top priority is enforcement and administration of the liquor laws as well as prevention of associated problems, such as underage access to alcohol. The bureau also has a long history of diligently enforcing the laws of the state that help keep the large multi-national brewers and distillers honest when doing business in Maine. Elimination of the bureau, along with the simultaneous privatization of the wholesale spirits business, will give the large out-of-state distilleries, breweries and wineries an enormous opportunity to assert considerable control over the alcoholic beverage industry in our state. It puts them in great position to manipulate the rules, regulations and laws that, up until now, have provided a level playing field for all businesses in the industry, whether large or small.

Gov. Baldacci’s budget proposal eliminates the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement and then separates licensing and tax collection from enforcement, in an effort to save money. According to testimony at the public hearing, the jobs of most current and experienced bureau employees would be cut and six new civilian employees would be hired to assist with licensing and tax collection. The commissioner of Public Safety, representing Gov. Baldacci’s proposal, admitted that he could not assure restaurants, stores and breweries that this would not cause delays in license renewals. Commissioner Cantara also testified that Maine’s local and state police would be expected to pick up all of the duties of liquor law enforcement. Bob Schwartz, representing the chiefs of police of the state of Maine, testified that local police do not have the funding, the training or the manpower to fill the void that will be left. In spite of this, I am told that the plan to eliminate the bureau of liquor enforcement is on track to happen by Friday, and would come into effect in June or July of this year, just as the summer season gets under full swing.

At the public hearing March 7 before the Appropriations Committee and the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee, not one person spoke in favor of eliminating the bureau. In stark contrast, leaders and representatives from every aspect of the alcoholic beverage industry, including distributors, Maine brewers, restaurant owners, store owners, and bar owners as well as representatives from law enforcement, substance abuse counselors and parents provided three and one half hours of testimony pleading with the state to drop this plan to eliminate the bureau of liquor enforcement. At a subsequent workshop representatives from industry offered to rally support for a license fee increase that would cover the $1.2 million shortfall needed to keep the bureau intact as it is now. The governor rejected the fee increase proposals that came out of that workshop.

I have been told that the elimination of the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement is a “done deal,” that the decision will probably be made today and that there is nothing that I can do to prevent it. I am hoping that businesses whose licenses will be affected by this, Mainers whose lives will be impacted and law enforcement personnel who are unable to pick up the additional duties will rally the support needed for the governor and the Legislature to prevent this from taking place.

Suzanne Foster, with husband Tod Foster, owns Bar Harbor Brewing Co., a small Maine brewery located in Bar Harbor.