House subcommittee hears bill to expand county liquor licenses and double tasting events; industry warns on store limits

A House subcommittee heard testimony on a bill to allow some Georgia counties to issue additional retail liquor licenses and to expand permitted on-site tastings, but opponents warned the proposal could unsettle small independent retailers.

Chairman Smith, the bill sponsor, told the subcommittee the measure — introduced as House Bill 210 — would let counties award additional licenses based on a sales-tax threshold and would not “structurally change the three-tiered system.” He said the bill is intended to give more business opportunities in rapidly growing counties and to benefit counties with significant tourism-related tax digests. “This would not structurally change the 3 tiered system,” Chairman Smith said during his opening remarks.

The bill as described by the sponsor would permit a county, per annum, to issue up to seven additional retail liquor licenses in a locality that meets the sales-tax threshold called out in the text. The sponsor also said the proposal would raise the number of allowed tasting events from 52 per year to 104 per year, a change he…