PA House Liquor Control — 2026-03-23

Okay, good morning. I would like to call the House Liquor Control Meeting to order. Just a reminder to members that this meeting is being recorded. James, will you please begin by taking the roll?

Venom. Designation.

Girall. Here.

Guzman. Designation.

Kenyatta. Designation.

McAndrew. Designation.

Powell. Designation.

Here.

Shusterman Designation

Gatos. Designation.

Major. Here.

Mihalik. Designation.

Rigby. Designation.

Stare. Designation. We have a quorum.

Senate Bill 1218 allows eligible retail licensees located in the city of Philadelphia to apply for a Philadelphia 250 permit. Applicants must confirm completion and certification of a specialized program offered by the city to provide nighttime safety for patrons and employees. There's a $500 application fee, and applicants are required to apply no less than 30 days prior to the permit and post on the outside of the premises their notice of application. Upon approval of the permit, it will allow licensees two hours extension per day to the on-premise operating privileges of the license. Permits are good for 40 days from June 11th to July 20th, 2026. The Board shall not issue a permit if a protest is filed by a city of the first class, if the license is subject to a pending objection by the Director of Bureau of Licensing, if it's suspended under the compliance program, if it's subject to a CLA under Section 470, if it's subject to a pending license suspension under Section 471D, or if it is objected by the City of Philadelphia. If the board objects to a permit, they are not appealable and disputes must be between the city and the applicants. Additionally, if there is any abuse of power by the permittees, it could be immediately revoked. It also amends the section dealing with public venues to allow a public venue in a city of the first class to obtain a special sporting event permit for an international soccer tournament for a period of no more than 50 days. And lastly, it includes language for the distillery of historical significance. We would amend the definition to modify the origination date from January 1, 1875 to January 1, 1885 and would remove the requirement that distilleries cannot produce more than 20,000 gallons of product a year.

Representative Isaacson. Thank you. And I appreciate the work that's gone into this with regard to some of the provisions that were put in to help create some safeguards. Unfortunately, with regard to the part of the bill for the Philadelphia 250 permit And that where my comments are going to be directed towards I am representative in the city of Philadelphia center city east along the river wards and I also have probably the largest concentration of liquor licenses than any other district and there's grave concerns by my constituents with regard to these extensions. Specifically these permits are being extended for 40 days, 40 days straight. There's no specific designation. I pulled the FIFA schedule. There's only three nights where a game starts at midnight. All other games start before 10 p.m. So to extend and have bars operating to four in the morning just for people to watch and obviously drink after a game, that's quite the extension. And again, that means on Sunday nights, Monday nights, Tuesday nights, regardless of whether there's a game or not. As people who have come to Philadelphia understand, especially in my district, many of these liquor establishments are located right adjacent or with residential properties adjoining them, perhaps condos on the upper floors or the row houses that populate the neighborhoods in which I represent. And there's grave concerns with regard to this extension, with regard to this. I appreciate some of the notice requirements that were included in the Senate after we had a dialogue, but this also does not permit the people who live there to have an appellate remedy from the liquor board. It is based only on the city of Philadelphia being able to protest. And it also, with this notification and the maintenance of permit application licensees, it's incumbent upon the communities to check on who has been applying for and who gets. So the burden then becomes on my residents to find out what's going to happen in their neighborhood before it happens. And they might not find out until it happens, since these are to be issued within the certain amount of days when they can be applicable. So again, I appreciate the extensions that have been afforded special events. I'm thrilled that we were chosen to host FIFA, the All-Star Game, America 250. We're going to have a lot of great things going on. And our city is certainly going to shine and help Pennsylvania and all the surrounding areas shine also on an international stage. But this unended 40 days, not designating certain times and leaving my communities vulnerable to what could be troublesome areas, having to try and rely on the city getting something shut down while they dealing with a city of millions of people is troublesome to me and while i supportive of other parts of this bill i unfortunately going to be a no on it and i would appreciate people understanding and perhaps being supportive of me trying to stand up for my communities and their quality of life during this time frame thank Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman. And listen, I completely understand, coming from a very conservative district, how Representative Isaacson feels, and I have great respect for her understanding and knowing her area. I know there's been a lot of work that went into this, and overall it's not my district. It's your area. So I will probably be a yes right now just to move it to get to the floor and move forth. But I just want to, you know, make note that I do understand the hesitation behind it. So thank you.

DZ.

Benham.

Brown.

Gerrall.

Gogenauer.

Guzman.

Isaacson.

Kenyatta.

Maligari.

McAndrew.

Otten.

Powell.

I'm sorry. Salisbury

Shusterman

She is joining us but she used to say yes as well Fee

Yes

Designation yes

designation yes Mahalik designation yes Mastello designation yes Rigby

having no further business this committee meeting is adjourned thank you