HELENA — Former Governor Steve Bullock signed an executive order last year to allow restaurants to deliver beer and wine with meals. A bill moving through the legislature seeks to make that permanent.
Sen. Ellie Boldman, D-Missoula, and Rep. Ed Buttrey, R-Great Falls, co-sponsored Senate Bill 320.
“This isn’t meant to be some kind of new beer and wine delivery service,” Boldman said during a House committee hearing on the bill Thursday. “It’s just meant so that mom and pop restaurants - when a lot of folks now are ordering food at home - that they can also go ahead and get beer and wine delivered.”
Under the bill, to have beer or wine delivered, the cost of the alcohol just can’t exceed the cost of the food.
John Iverson spoke on behalf of the Montana Tavern Association in support of the bill, pointing out that people can already have drinks delivered on resort property.
“This just allows us poor folk to enjoy the same thing that the resorts are enjoying,” Iverson said.
The bill passed out of the Senate 33-17 in March with bipartisan support.
James Bradley is a reporter with the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Broadcasters Association, the Montana Newspaper Association and the Greater Montana Foundation.
james22bradley@gmail.com twitter.com/jayx15a
