Not many people are toasting on Tuesday night as lawmakers in the Mississippi Senate chose to kill a handful of alcohol-related bills.
House Bill 329 and House Bill 430 – both of which passed overwhelmingly in their originating chamber – would have put Mississippi with the majority of the U.S. in terms of when and how alcohol is sold, allowing liquor stores to open on Sunday as well as allowing residents to have wine directly shipped to their homes.
Regarding the latter, Sen. Jeremy England pleaded with fellow members of the Senate Finance Committee to let the full floor decide on whether Mississippi should join 48 other states in opening direct-to-consumer shipping laws for out-of-state wineries.
“I think it’s time for us to consider moving this out of committee and getting this on the floor where our colleagues can take a look at it,” the Republican from Vancleave said. “I understand that there are some concerns from our package liquor stores, but I also know that there are other states that allow direct ship that also have package liquor stores and they seem to be doing fine.”
England also questioned why they would kill the bill considering another one recently passed their committee that would allow Mississippi manufacturers to ship to other states.
“If I recall correctly, earlier this year, we passed a bill to allow distillers of wine and other beverages in Mississippi to have additional warehouse space so that they could accommodate customers in other states,” England continued. “So, we are allowing wineries to ship directly to consumers in other states … It’s just time for us to get on board with this.”
Even with England’s arguments, other members cited concerns they have received from liquor and package stores worried that a different route to market would negatively affect their business. While the committee initially approved a strike-all where they could place their own amended language in the legislation, it ultimately did not make it out alive.
Another bill killed by the Senate Finance Committee that would have seriously ironed out some of Mississippi’s carryover laws from the
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