Wausau City Hall. MWC file photo.
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — A proposed state legislation regarding cocktails to go won’t be getting the support of Wausau representatives.
Monday evening the Wausau Public Health and Safety Committee passed a resolution opposing a proposed State Assembly bill regarding the sale of to-go cocktails. Committee Chair and District 7 Alder Lisa Rasmussen explained the bill needs work before being passable. But the part of the bill that concerned her most would be the potential loss of local control on alcohol licensing.
“As the State starts to stick their toe into these processes, that really does usurp local control. And that begins really to erode the municipalities control of licensing if they overarchingly open stuff like this state-wide.”
The bill as written also has few safety measures according to Rasmussen and Wausau Police Chief Ben Bliven. There is no sunset date on the changes the bill would make to alcohol laws and has no provisions as to where the items can be transported by the driver. The Committee was in agreement that the lack of provisions could encourage OWI’s and underage access to alcohol.
In explaining the resolution Rasmussen also mentioned the City of Wausau has already taken steps to help local businesses continue safely selling alcohol throughout the pandemic. “We’ve waived all their license fees. We’ve created the ability for grocers to deliver alcohol curbside with a food purchase. We created provisions to allow dining in the street.
“We allowed them all to amend their premise to use their parking lot for outside seating. We’ve allowed our class B license holders, which are restaurants and taverns, to sell closed containers and deliver them to vehicles with food.”
Mayor Rosenberg added she has recently spoken to some members of the Assembly about the bill and their hesitation with its language. “I reached out to a couple of the folks in the Assembly and they said that this bill really does need a lot of work. It exacerbates some of the inequities between certain kinds of businesses, which we don’t like. We figured out a way to make it work for a multitude of our local businesses.”
Due to the lack of provisions in the current bill and the potential removal of local control over licensing, the Committee unanimously passed the resolution. It now moves onto the City Council for final approval at their first meeting in February. The Assembly Bill is currently supported by Ashwaubenon Representative David Steffen and Irma Senator Mary Felzkowski. There are no co-sponsors for the bill.
The Committee also extended the City’s mask resolution through the end of March at their Monday meeting. Little changes about the resolution except for the end date of March 31st. The resolution comes with no enforceable action but does encourage residents to mask up in all publicly-accessible spaces, especially as a new, more contagious strain of COVID-19 has been found in Wisconsin.
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