Much of the reporting on the recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has been cluttered with moans, groans, and general derision. But the act includes provisions that, until now, were talked about mainly within their respective circles of interest. Provisions that reduce taxes for entrepreneurs struggling to climb a hill pockmarked with rules and...
Craft brewers say North Carolina is suppressing growth and have filed a complaint saying that two state laws are unconstitutional and nothing more than economic protectionism. The complaint, filed Monday in Wake County Superior Court, seeks a permanent injunction against enforcement of the state’s distribution cap and franchise laws. It says the distribution cap and...
RALEIGH — One state lawmaker is making a last ditch effort to give craft brewers a break from restrictive distribution laws. Rep. John Bradford, R-Mecklenburg, on Monday said he wants to reach a compromise on House Bill 500, which was gutted last week of a provision that would have lifted the cap on the 25,000 barrels...
Grover Norquist is using his considerable influence to push North Carolina lawmakers toward reforming restrictive laws governing craft beer. Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform, is calling for an end to the state’s “protectionist, anti-consumer restriction on craft brewery self-distribution.” Norquist in 1985 founded ATR, which promotes a system in which taxes are simpler,...
North Carolinians have an insatiable taste for craft beers, and they have little tolerance for lawmakers who want to tamper with how they get their stouts and IPAs. A survey of North Carolina voters bears that out. Brewers around the state, some 180 of them, simply want what’s fair. One goal of craftfreedom.org — a...
A recent John Locke Foundation Spotlight report “Hard to Swallow” by Jon Guze, JLF's director of legal studies, says North Carolina requires 43 different types of permits and licenses for different activities linked to alcohol sales.
While voters in a number of North Carolina localities will have alcohol, tax increase, and bond referendums on their minds, citizens in the Forsyth County village of Tobaccoville will be deciding whether to recall their mayor. On Jan. 7, Tobaccoville Mayor Billy McHone resigned his office, but rescinded the offer before the Village Council could...
While some of North Carolina’s craft breweries are gearing up for a 2017 legislative fight related to the distribution of their beer, Raleigh’s Lucas Smith is developing a documentary to tell the story of how some of the state’s beers get from the brewery to the taproom. Smith is using the crowdfunding website Indiegogo.com as...
North Carolina is not the only state in which mom-and-pop alcohol producers are seeking a break from restrictions on their ability to market their products. Alabama wineries and distilleries may soon see state lawmakers ease regulations that now prevent smaller operations from competing against alcohol industry giants. One Alabama rule allows local wineries and distilleries to...
Terry Stoops on finding innovative school leaders; property owners explain how N.C.'s Map Act hurts them; Thom Goolsby on worries over surveillance technology; Scott Maitland on reforming ABC laws; Katherine Restrepo on unleashing competition in medicine
RALEIGH – The state House has said cheers to a compromise beer distributorship agreement that will make changes to the state’s decades-old beer franchise law. The distributors would gain in that breweries essentially would have to sell their products to distributors at the same price statewide.
