{"id":29176,"date":"2021-02-10T10:32:40","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T16:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29176"},"modified":"2021-02-10T13:53:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T19:53:46","slug":"expansion-of-to-go-alcohol-sales-considered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29176","title":{"rendered":"Expansion of to-go alcohol sales considered"},"content":{"rendered":"

The General Affairs Committee heard testimony Feb. 8 on a bill intended to expand off-premises alcohol sales in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Suzanne Geist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB72, introduced by Sen. Suzanne Geist of Lincoln, would allow the holder of a Class C liquor license to sell alcohol not in the original package \u2014 such as a mixed drink or cocktail \u2014 for consumption off the premises. The holder of a Class I liquor license could do the same if the alcohol is not partially consumed and is purchased with food.<\/p>\n

Alcohol sold under the bill\u2019s provisions would be in a sealed, labeled container with a tamper-evident lid, cap or seal and, if placed into a car, be out of reach of the driver or passengers.<\/p>\n

Nebraska bars and restaurants were allowed to sell alcohol off site under a directed health measure implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, Geist said, and LB72 would make that change permanent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is something we can do, or I could do, to help these businesses recover and stay open, then we should try,\u201d Geist said.<\/p>\n

Lincoln restaurant owner Dean Hart testified in support of the bill. Revenue at Hart\u2019s restaurant has dropped 40 percent since the pandemic began nearly a year ago, he said, but without the ability to sell liquor his business would be \u201cin dire straits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hobert Rupe, Director of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, also spoke in support. He said LB72 would not violate the state\u2019s open container law and that most establishments have sold alcohol responsibly during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve received very few complaints,\u201d Rupe said.<\/p>\n

No opponents were present to testify against LB72 and the committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The General Affairs Committee heard testimony Feb. 8 on a bill intended to expand off-premises alcohol sales in Nebraska. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[186],"class_list":["post-29176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-affairs","tag-sen-suzanne-geist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/LB72Geist2-8-21a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29182,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29176\/revisions\/29182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}