Effort to lengthen bar hours during DNC tied to fight over wedding barns
MADISON – Owners of bars and restaurants want to take advantage of the late-night crowds expected during the Democratic National Convention but a long-standing statehouse debate could put that new business in jeopardy.
A bill in the works to extend operation hours of bars and restaurants until 4 a.m. during the week of the July convention — which will draw tens of thousands of potential patrons — would also require Gov. Tony Evers to change course and require barn owners to pay for permits to host weddings and adhere to other new regulations.
The legislation has the backing of a number of key groups including the powerful Tavern League lobbying group, which won’t support proposals to extend bars’ operating hours unless the state agrees to regulate barn wedding venues — rules the group has sought for years.
“I think it represents a lot of compromise,” Tavern League spokesman Scott Stenger said in an interview about the bill, which is still being drafted. “It’s the very least the state ought to do to make sure venues (are safe).”
But the Senate’s leader threw cold — though not freezing — water on the chances of the proposal passing by March, when the Legislature plans to adjourn for the year.
“The bigger issue is that trying to pull together a bill that deals with anything closely related to alcohol has so many different angles on it right now and 4 a.m. is caught up in that with a lot of other stuff,” Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald told the Milwaukee Business Journal in an interview Thursday. “I’m not going to say that anything’s dead, but that’s the issue.”
Under current law, establishments with class “B” licenses or permits must be closed from 2 to 6 a.m. Monday through Friday and from 2:30 to 6 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. They are not required to close on New Year’s Eve.
The proposal extends bar time in southeastern Wisconsin to 4 a.m. during the DNC, requires wedding barn owners to pay the state $2,000 every two years for permits, mandates the wedding venues close at midnight, hire licensed bartenders and hold liability insurance. The bill also would cut the number of hours small breweries may be open, and allow the state to issue alcohol permits for State Fair Park in West Allis and Road America race track in Elkhart Lake.
Republican Rep. Rob Swearingen of Rhinelander, who is drafting the bill, said the proposal includes different measures because extending operation hours during the DNC opens up the state’s liquor laws, drawing all sorts of stakeholders to the table and making it difficult to draft a bill that only extends bar time.
“That’s the politics of it,” Swearingen said. “Just the small changes in this bill has resulted in a lot of locking of horns.”
He said the bill also has backing from key groups that represent grocery stores and restaurants and others that give it life, but its future is unclear because of its scope.
“Our primary interest is in giving all our hospitality providers — restaurants, hotels, bars, distilleries, wineries, craft breweries, etc. — the ability to operate with extended hours during the DNC. We really do not have a dog in the fight on the other ancillary issues,” said Steve Baas of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, who said the group was not involved in the drafting of the bill.
“In general, however, the more you complicate the plumbing the more likely it is that something clogs up the drain. So in that regard the scope and complexity of the bill is concerning,” Baas said.
Whether owners of barns that are rented for events like weddings should be subject to the same regulations as other event venues has been under debate among lawmakers in recent years and ended up in the courtroom last year.
Soon after taking office in 2019, Evers made clear his administration was not going to require owners of such venues to obtain liquor licenses before renting their barns for events.
That decision, for a while, settled a long-standing debate between those who operate wedding venues on farmland and restaurant and bar owners who say all wedding venues should be treated the same under state law if alcohol is consumed on their premises.
Barn owners and free-market conservatives have argued the venues are private places and should not be subject to regulations applied to businesses whose model hinges on selling alcohol.
But now, as Evers faces pressure to find a way to provide southeast Wisconsin bar and restaurant owners with a few extra hours of business, the proposal is resurrecting the dormant issue.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Revenue, which would enforce new regulations on wedding barn owners, said Secretary Peter Barca is reviewing the proposal.