A Response on HB 429
According to the response I received from my state representative regarding HB 429, "the sponsor of this bill has agreed to hold the bill on 2nd Reading until all parties could meet and come to an agreement." I think this is good news but I'm not exactly sure. Although, my favorite quote from the response is this:
Currently HB429 amends the Liquor Control Act of 1934 to deal with direct wine shipments to consumers and addresses issues raised in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in May 2005 that stated that states who allow in-state wineries to ship directly to consumers must treat out-of-state wineries equal. As your letter mentions, Illinois currently allows in-state wineries to sell directly to consumers, but limits out-of-state wineries, so Illinois is in violation of the U.S. Commerce Clause.
Funny but I've never had any problems receiving wine from out-of-state wineries or retailers. Also, if you actually read the proposed changes, this little nugget "Deletes provisions (i) permitting first-class and second-class wine-maker licensees to sell wine directly to retailers" seems to indicate that they would no longer allow wineries to sell directly to retailers. I'm no lawyer but this sounds an awful lot like the wholesalers making sure they get their cut. Smells rotten to me.
posted by Steve at
9:40 PM
2 Comments:
Sure would be nice if we could elect people that did not sell out once they were in office.
By
Anonymous, at 10:26 AM
The basic problem with this bill is that it prohibits Illinois consumers from purchasing wine from out-of-state wine stores, something they've been able to do for 15 years.
Out of state wineries and in-state wineries and in-state retailers would be able to ship to consumrs.
This is a basic attempt by IL wholesalers to avoid competiton and capture more of the market. Every bottle of wine that a consumers buys from an out-of-state wine store is a bottle of wine sold that did not first go through the wholesalers' hands.
It's the kind of protectionism you think you are owed when you give more than $5.4 million to legislators since 2000.
By
Tom, at 6:21 PM
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