The bill SB312 amends the Code of Alabama 1975 to introduce two new types of licenses under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board: an event storage license and a government venue license. The event storage license allows holders of specific special event licenses, such as special events retail licenses and nonprofit special events retail licenses, to store alcoholic beverages at a designated permanent facility and transfer them to special event venues as needed. This license requires compliance with existing laws, payment of a license fee, and maintenance of records for all alcoholic beverage transactions, while also mandating that the storage facility meets specific security and zoning requirements. The government venue license permits individuals to sell and dispense alcoholic beverages at special events on government-owned properties, with sales limited to an occasional use basis.

Additionally, the bill revises the annual license fees for various alcohol-related licenses, establishing a new government venue license fee of $250 and an event storage license fee of $550. It modifies existing license fees by changing the wholesaler beer license to a wholesaler license and consolidating the fees for wine and beer wholesaler licenses into a combined fee of $750. The previous separate fee structure for beer and wine licenses has been removed. The bill allows holders of special retail licenses to convert to the new government venue license category by September 30, 2026, provided they meet all necessary requirements, and is set to take effect on July 1, 2025.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 28-3A-19, 28-3A-20, 28-3A-21, 28-3A-19, 28-3A-19, 28-3A-21, 28-3B-1
Engrossed: 28-3A-21
Enrolled: 28-3A-21