Craft brewer distribution deal stalls in House
Photo | Courtesy of Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Massachusetts State House
It seemed like a slam dunk.
After years of bitter fighting, craft brewers and beer wholesalers came together at the end of July to announce that they had struck a deal that would allow smaller breweries to more easily end their relationship with a distributor if they felt their brand wasn't being properly marketed.
The sticking point for a decade - how small must a brewery be to be covered by the change - was resolved by setting the threshold at 250,000 barrels. The limit covered every brewery in Massachusetts except Boston Beer Company, the brewer of Sam Adams.
Everyone was happy, or so it seemed. The agreement was announced over a weekend, and that Thursday, July 23 the Senate voted unanimously to accept the deal and send the bill to the House. And it hasn't advanced since.
"Obviously, we were watching it closely and had hoped and anticipated that it would get passed on Friday, but obviously that didn't happen," said Joe Salois, the owner and president of Atlas Distributing in Auburn.
Salois helped negotiate the compromise on behalf of the beer distributors across the table from Sam Hendler, one of the founding brothers of Jack's Abbey brewing in Framingham.
Both men said that no one from the House has raised any concerns with them regarding the substance of the agreement.
"It seems everyone to a person is supportive and hopes this will be passed and approved. I have not spoke to one legislator who has had an issue with it or expressed concerns with respect to the bill. So that's good news. Now it's just about getting it across the finish line," Salois said.
Last week was supposed to be the final week of formal sessions this year for the Legislature, which carried with it a deadline of Friday at midnight to complete work on all major pieces of legislation. However, the Legislature voted to extend its legislative calendar for the rest of the year because of the ongoing pandemic, the need to pass an overdue state budget, and with the hope of wrapping up other important unfinished matters.
That meant that legislation like the beer distribution bill (S 2829) also got an extension.
"The biggest thing we've just heard is that last week was a bit of a crazy week so we're still hopeful," Hendler told the News Service on Tuesday.
One of the bills that did get a vote in the House last week was a major economic development bill that included significant zoning reforms to encourage the construction of new housing and a proposal to legalize betting on professional and college sports.
Rep. John Mahoney, a Worcester Democrat, had filed an amendment which would have attached the brewer-distributor agreement to the jobs bill, but it was a rejected along with dozens of other amendments voted on in one bulk package.
While Speaker Robert DeLeo's office did not respond to an email seeking comment on the Senate bill, Mahoney said he thought the reason his amendment wasn't adopted was because there were other "more pressing" issues being debated, and leadership knew there would be time to return to the brewer bill.
"I'm hopeful. I've been working on it for a long time and I think a lot of people are in agreement. It might just be as simple as ,'Let's do it later on because we're open for business,' " he said.
Asked whether he thought it might get caught up in politics between the House and Senate, Mahoney said, "I don't think there's a whole lot of intrigue with it."
Since the bill stalled in the House, some who have worked on the issue inside and outside the building have speculated that it may have become a bargaining chip for negotiations between the branches on unrelated matters, which is something legislative leaders have long denied goes on.
Five major issues are either before conference committee or headed there, including bills dealing with climate change, telehealth and long-term transportation spending. The Senate expanded the housing reforms in the economic development bill, and dropped the sports betting language.
"Obviously with the session getting extended we don't really know what deadline there is. Some of the pressure came off from a time standpoint," Hendler said. "We're just going to keep asking the House to get this done."
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