Opinion

Editorial: Get rid of minimum pricing on alcohol in state

A flight of craft beers at the Aspetuck Brew Lab, a micro brewery in Bridgeport. A flight of craft beers at the Aspetuck Brew Lab, a micro brewery in Bridgeport. Photo: File Photo / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: File Photo / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Editorial: Get rid of minimum pricing on alcohol in state 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Prohibition ended in 1933, but Connecticut is still clinging to some vestiges of it — to the detriment of consumers.

For far too long, the state has meddled in the pricing of alcohol by package stores, artificially trying to bolster the business. Connecticut, the only state with minimum bottle pricing requirements for wine and spirits, should come into the 21st Century and eliminate the pricing practice. Now.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has been trying to do this since taking office seven years ago, but resistance from lobbying groups of primarily small shop owners has stymied this progress. It was hard enough getting the General Assembly to lift the ban in 2012 on Sunday sales.

Malloy is trying again to remove the minimum bottle pricing and this time has shrewdly linked it with lifting barriers on the rapidly growing craft brewing and distilling industries in the state.

While consumers would benefit from lower prices possible without the artificial mandated levels, the state also could benefit with increased revenue. And that might be the most compelling argument for change this session.

No fewer than 114 people, including the governor, submitted testimony in a public hearing before the General Law Committee last week on House Bill 5036: An Act Promoting Craft Breweries and Distilleries and Price Fairness.

The bill proposed by Malloy would let craft distilleries serve mixed drinks, remove the 9-liter limit for off-site consumption for breweries and allow package stores to fill growlers, containers to transport beer. Also, the bill would eliminate the price fixing to allow more flexibility, and remove the requirement that wholesalers post a suggested retail price.

“This state-mandated price fixing creates an anti-competitive environment where business owners have fewer rights than any other industry,” Malloy said in his testimony, “and Connecticut consumers ultimately suffer.”

Under the present pricing system, a retailer cannot sell below the fixed price, regardless of cost, which can increase profits and indicate a reason the industry has opposed the change.

But smaller package stores would still maintain protections, Henry Talmage, executive director of the Connecticut Farm Bureau Association, pointed out, such as prohibiting quantity discounts that would benefit big box stores; requiring that wholesalers sell at the same price to all retailers; and limiting the maximum number of package stores in each town.

Connecticut might be losing as much as 12 percent of spirits, 15 percent of wine and 16 percent of beer volumes because of the lack of price competition, according to the Distilled Spirits Council. Removing the fixed pricing would open $5.2 million to $8.1 million in new revenue to the state, according to council testimony.

Craft breweries are a growing industry in the state, with about 65 operating and several dozen more planned. Removing the limit of how much can be sold for off-site consumption would open opportunities. Similarly, a Senate bill would allow the sale of wine from Connecticut’s many farm wineries to be sold in grocery stores.

Connecticut needs to get its alcohol laws aligned with modern times.