Tavern League pushes back against wedding barn lawsuit
Memo to lawmakers says suit puts licenses at risk
MADISON - A powerful lobbying group that represents restaurants and taverns is pushing back against a lawsuit filed earlier this month by two barn owners who are seeking to prevent such venues from needing liquor licenses to host weddings.
Chris Marsicano, president of the Tavern League of Wisconsin, sent a memo to all 132 lawmakers Tuesday saying the lawsuit will “jeopardize all licensure and regulation of establishments that serve alcohol in Wisconsin.”
The memo comes after the barn owners and a conservative legal firm sued Gov. Tony Evers, Attorney General Josh Kaul and the state Department of Revenue amid a longstanding debate over whether barn owners should be regulated like other wedding venues.
Owners of barn venues say their structures are private places and shouldn’t be subject to the same regulations as restaurants, bars and other wedding venues.
Marsicano argues the owners are trying to skirt the law, which would subject them to regulations and costs to obtain liquor licenses.
“The ability to skirt this law creates a tremendous financial advantage for unlicensed party barns over properly licensed businesses in Wisconsin,” he said in the memo to lawmakers. “A couple seeking a wedding at an unlicensed barn can save thousands of dollars in costs compared to a properly licensed business.”
Marsicano said without licensure, wedding barn venues are not subject to requirements related to closing hours, wholesale laws, the state smoking ban, having licensed bartenders, private well testing and sales tax collection, among other requirements.
“With a few tweaks to their business, every tavern in the state could meet the definition of a private event and escape licensure,” he argued.
Jean Bahn, owner of Farmview Event Barn in Berlin, and John Govin, who owns The Weddin’ Barn in Menomonie, are being represented by conservative legal firm Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty in the lawsuit.
The barn owners filed a lawsuit in Dunn County Circuit Court asking a judge to decide whether the state’s liquor laws apply to private barns that are rented out for parties where alcohol is consumed but not for sale.
In the lawsuit, the barn owners argue, “Private property does not become a ‘public place’ when it is rented out to members of the public.”
“If that were the case then hotel rooms, apartments and vacation cottages would be public places — because they are all available for rent by the public — and the owners and tenants/ lessees of such places could consume alcohol on the premises only if they held a retail liquor license or permit,” the lawsuit argues.
Lucas Vebber, an attorney representing the barn owners, said the Tavern League is attempting to use lawmakers to stifle “businesses that are, at best, indirect competitors.”
“All special interests crave government regulation that makes the service or product they provide scarce and immune from competition,” Vebber said. “The Tavern League’s memo to the Legislature is pure scare tactics and hyperbole. Tavern rules do not apply — and should not apply — to wedding barns because barns, quite simply, are not taverns. They are not open to the public. They host private events.”
Tavern League lobbyist Scott Stenger said his members “crave consistency.”
“Competition requires all participants to play by the same rules and like the attorney general opinion we agree those rules should apply to everyone who permits the consumption of alcohol,” he said.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester said he hoped the issue could be resolved outside a courtroom, but he didn’t know yet if legislation is necessary. He didn’t offer a solution to the issue.
“I certainly understand the fact that they did something under interpretation of the law where no one stopped them from operating the way that they were. I always have a soft spot in my heart for when people do something thinking that the government has never told them that they cannot and all of the sudden after eight or 10 years they change the rules,” Vos told reporters.
He added: “Rather than having everybody run to us (in the Legislature) saying, ‘Fix this problem,’ how about if you run to the Evers administration and say, ‘How are you going to interpret the law? You have the ability.”
Evers’ Department of Revenue has not weighed in on the issue. Vos said his preference is to first see if a law is required and then have negotiations.
Stenger said the group was not seeking new legislation, and a committee convened earlier this year to review the issue ended its work without proposing legislation.
Former Attorney General Brad Schimel at the request of Rep. Rob Swearingen, a former president of the Tavern League, issued an informal opinion on the issue just before leaving office.
In it, he said private places that may be rented out for a limited private event are still considered public and thus subject to state laws governing public places that serve alcohol.
Newly elected Attorney General Josh Kaul has not weighed in on the issue.