COLUMBIA - The House Ways and Means Committee approved a free-pour bill Tuesday in the same form that it passed a subcommittee last week, but some members are dissatisfied and said they will continue their fight on the floor.

The bill differs from one awaiting floor action in the Senate in two major ways: It replaces the 25-cent minibottle tax with a 5 percent cocktail tax, and it allows the major wholesalers to sell directly to bars.

The Senate bill replaces the minibottle tax with an additional 56 cents of tax on each liter sold to everyone, and it does not allow the wholesalers to com-
pete with the liquor stores that are specially licensed to sell to bars.

Some legislators say they are worried that if the four wholesalers can sell directly to bars, it will put out of business the 58 stores that currently hold what are known as Class B licenses.

Those are federal permits that allow the stores to sell to the public and to bars for on-premise use.

Republican Rep. Jim McGee of Florence proposed an amendment, which failed, that would have required the distillers to sell their products to all the wholesalers because he said that would make pricing more competitive.

Each wholesaler represents only certain brands.

Rep. Bill Cotty, R-Columbia, said interfering with those contracts is not within the state's power. Only two other states have such a law, and they do not have Class B licensees, Cotty said, so there is no comparison.

McGee said it is not fair to require liquor stores to buy products from people who can compete with them.

"It is about money, and they want it all," he said.

"I think we ought to keep government out of it," said Rep. Jim Battle, D-Nichols.

McGee asked why the subcommittee that developed the bill did not simply eliminate the Class B system instead of putting them in a situation where they will go out of business in a few years.

"I was trying to be fair," Cotty said.

"This is just unlevel," McGee said.

McGee also proposed to require that wholesalers sell to the Class B stores at the same prices they buy products from the distillers.

"This would be price-fixing," Cotty said. That proposal failed as well.

The bill includes a provision that the wholesalers would have to offer the same discounts to stores that they offer to bars.

That would keep them from undercutting the stores, Cotty said.

McGee said he will continue the discussion on the House floor over ways to prevent the wholesalers from running the Class B stores out of business.

The bill probably will not be debated until next week.