COLUMBIA--Bars and restaurants could have liquor delivered instead of having to pick up alcohol from liquor stores under a bill that won key approval Wednesday in the House.

The legislation creates rules that allow bars and restaurants to make drinks using minibottles or free-pour bottles. South Carolinians voted in November to get rid of the Constitutional requirement that restaurants and bars use the tiny bottles. The House legislation still needs third reading.

Legislation to end the minibottle monopoly has passed the Senate. Both versions would make slight changes in how liquor is now taxed. Customers in bars and restaurants would pay an extra 5 percent-per-drink tax to replace the quarter-per-minibottle tax.

But there are differences in the bills. The House disagrees with the Senate on how liquor should be delivered to bars and restaurants.

The House bill would allow both retail liquor stores and wholesale distributors to deliver to bars and restaurants, but the Senate bill allows only liquor stores to do so.

 

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LEGISLATIVE REPORT