Restaurants scorn lifeline from LCB
Financial effect of waiving liquor license fees ‘drop in bucket’
Caught in no-man’s-land between coronavirus mitigation orders, an attention-sapping election and increasing virus case numbers, Pennsylvania restaurants and bars are struggling as never before.
There were more than 26,000 eating and drinking venues statewide when the pandemic hit. John Longstreet, president and CEOof the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, said one-third of them may be closed right now, at least temporarily.
“It’s as bad as it has been,” Longstreet said.
A Wednesday decision by the state Liquor Control Board to waive license fees for restaurants, clubs, bars and other venues, while appreciated, caused little excitement.
The concept was first mentioned publicly by Gov. Tom Wolf last week.
The waived regular fees for 2021 vary from $30 to $700 each. They include the license fee, renewal fee, validation fee, renewal/validation surcharge,
“Just let us operate. I am not looking for government handouts and money. The people want to come out and have their events. Let them decide whether there is safety here.” — Bruce Haines, managing partner of the Hotel Bethlehem
amusement permit fee, Sunday sales permit fee, and extended hours food license fee.
More expensive but less common variable-cost “safekeeping extension fees” that allow inactive licenses to be preserved also will be waived, the LCB said. The agency put the total financial forgiveness of the waiver at more than $27 million. Longstreet said the savings would range between $600 and $1,500 per business.
Longstreet, referring to the waiver of the more common fees, said, “That’s not going to save anyone.”
Shelly Salak, owner of Joe’s Tavern in Bethlehem, called Wolf ’s initial announcement “a grand gesture” but said the financial effect was “a drop in the bucket.” State Sen. Lisa Boscola, a Northampton County Democrat, called it no more than a “crumb.”
Bruce Haines, managing partner of the Hotel Bethlehem, said his venue has lost a big chunk of its business to virus restrictions.
“It is bleak,” Haines said. “The outlook is bleak.”
The LCB board vote on the waiver was 2-1, with members Tim Holden and Mary Isenhour in favor and Mike Negra voting “no.”
Negra said it was the role of the General Assembly and the governor, not the LCB, to waive fees.
“It is painfully obvious to me that we are legislating this issue as the board,” Negra said.
The vote came on a day when the state reported 2,228 more cases of the virus and a running tracker of hospitalizations reached its highest level since mid-June.
In mid-July, when Wolf issued a set of restrictions including one that limited restaurants to 25% of indoor dining capacity, he cited careless actions by bar and restaurant patrons as promoting pockets of coronavirus “super-spread.”
Since then, Wolf has loosened some of those measures. Last month, he allowed restaurants that self-certify coronavirus safety efforts to operate at 50% capacity.
Longstreet said the industry has never seen data to back up Wolf’s original curtailment of indoor dining to the 25% level.
And despite the recently created self-certification process, there remains a requirement that alcohol cannot be served without food, bar seating cannot be used, and indoor event venues with a maximum capacity of 2,000 or fewer are limited to 20% of capacity.
Longstreet said crowds are still gathering for big events, but they are gathering in unlicensed places without the safety protocols that restaurants and hotels have.
State government still has on hand $1.3 billion in federal coronavirus emergency funds.
Lawmakers have talked about programs that would use some of the money to help small businesses including bars and restaurants but no action has been taken even though deadlines are approaching.
Because of the Nov. 3 election, lawmakers will not return to Harrisburg until Nov. 10. And at the federal level, talks on another coronavirus stimulus package have dragged on.
At Hotel Bethlehem, Haines said the 20% restriction has shut down the 40% of his business that is tied to banquet dining. Ballrooms that have a capacity for 200 to 400 people are limited to 40 to 80 people.
“Just let us operate,” Haines said. “I am not looking for government handouts and money. The people want to come out and have their events. Let them decide whether there is safety here.”
At Joe’s Tavern, Salak wants to reopen.
But a bar runs the entire length of her venue from front to back and with all that seating ruled out, she knows she “can’t hang tables from the ceiling.”
Salak said she has been unable to get information from lawmakers on what the possibilities are. Trying to figure out what to do, she said, is like a chess game of “where the legislation is, where the numbers are going, how things stand.”
Beyond that, she is worried about how the public now thinks about bars and restaurants.
She said, “Are people even going to want to come out because such a fear has been instilled in people’s minds?”