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"Wine in Grocery Stores" Bill Scratched This Session
WPLN
4/15/2009
WPLN
“Wine in Grocery Store” Bill Scratched This Session
Produced daily by your WPLN News Staff
By Joe White
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Grocery shoppers won’t be able to buy wine in their local supermarket – at least not this year, after the state legislature shelved a bill to allow such sales .
Dickson Representative David Shepard says he gave up on the measure when he couldn’t muster enough votes to pass it in a House subcommittee.
It was my sense that we really did not have the support of the House and the Senate to pass wine in grocery store this year. And we discussed this with the grocery store people, and they agreed.”
Grocery retailers have made a concerted effort to get wine on the shelves for two years.
The issue will now be studied in a joint committee this summer.
Representative Shepard was able to get another bill out of a subcommittee – one that would allow wine to be shipped direct to a consumer’s door. The Senate has already approved the measure, but it still has to go through at least two more committees in the House before final passage.
WEB EXTRA
Representative Shepard says the decision to delay the ‘wine in grocery stores’ bill was made with the concurrence of retail grocers who had sought the new law.
“What we’d like to do is have a joint, House-Senate study committee….
And hopefully we can look at the issue from a real broad perspective, and try to find ways to make it work.”
The wine-in-grocery-store bill is HB 1157 Shepard/SB 121 Ketron.
The bill is shown as “taken off notice” in the House Local Government Subcommittee, which usually means the bill is permanently parked and not intended to move forward.
The fiscal note, or cost of the bill, shows a potential increase in tax revenue due to increased sale of wine – but that argument has been attacked by opponents. See our previous story on the bill: Opponents of “Wine in Grocery Stores” Lobby at State Capitol
Direct shipment of wine
The bill to allow direct sales of wine for home shipment is SB 0166 Stanley/HB1155 Shepard.
Shepard says the bill will allow Tennessee wine-makers to participate in a multi-state market.
“The local wineries that are having a hard time making it this year, our agricultural products – this will help them get customers for their products. Other, thirty-five states,…already do it.”
The bill passed in the Senate 22-8 on Monday, April 13. A previous WPLN story gave some of the financial background for passing the bill: Home Delivery of Wine One Step Closer in Tennessee
© Copyright 2009 WPLN
“Wine in Grocery Store” Bill Scratched This Session
Produced daily by your WPLN News Staff
By Joe White
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Grocery shoppers won’t be able to buy wine in their local supermarket – at least not this year, after the state legislature shelved a bill to allow such sales .
Dickson Representative David Shepard says he gave up on the measure when he couldn’t muster enough votes to pass it in a House subcommittee.
It was my sense that we really did not have the support of the House and the Senate to pass wine in grocery store this year. And we discussed this with the grocery store people, and they agreed.”
Grocery retailers have made a concerted effort to get wine on the shelves for two years.
The issue will now be studied in a joint committee this summer.
Representative Shepard was able to get another bill out of a subcommittee – one that would allow wine to be shipped direct to a consumer’s door. The Senate has already approved the measure, but it still has to go through at least two more committees in the House before final passage.
WEB EXTRA
Representative Shepard says the decision to delay the ‘wine in grocery stores’ bill was made with the concurrence of retail grocers who had sought the new law.
“What we’d like to do is have a joint, House-Senate study committee….
And hopefully we can look at the issue from a real broad perspective, and try to find ways to make it work.”
The wine-in-grocery-store bill is HB 1157 Shepard/SB 121 Ketron.
The bill is shown as “taken off notice” in the House Local Government Subcommittee, which usually means the bill is permanently parked and not intended to move forward.
The fiscal note, or cost of the bill, shows a potential increase in tax revenue due to increased sale of wine – but that argument has been attacked by opponents. See our previous story on the bill: Opponents of “Wine in Grocery Stores” Lobby at State Capitol
Direct shipment of wine
The bill to allow direct sales of wine for home shipment is SB 0166 Stanley/HB1155 Shepard.
Shepard says the bill will allow Tennessee wine-makers to participate in a multi-state market.
“The local wineries that are having a hard time making it this year, our agricultural products – this will help them get customers for their products. Other, thirty-five states,…already do it.”
The bill passed in the Senate 22-8 on Monday, April 13. A previous WPLN story gave some of the financial background for passing the bill: Home Delivery of Wine One Step Closer in Tennessee
© Copyright 2009 WPLN
