Full bar on your next long-distance bus trip? NC House looks to legalize it
Travelers heading across the state by bus could soon buy cocktails, wine and beer along the way.
House Bill 693 would legalize a new trend in other states where bus companies have added a bar to the chartered bus experience. The bill passed the House on Wednesday in an 89-14 vote.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tim Moffitt, a Henderson County Republican, said the services cater to “first class and business class” travelers, and he expects the routes would include Charlotte to Raleigh and Raleigh to Wilmington.
But Moffitt stressed that his bill wouldn’t add bars to the types of buses that ferry party people between bars.
“There has been some concern about this leading to party buses, and other types of unsavory things — that is not the purpose of the bill,” he said. The alcohol permits would be valid only on bus trips of at least 75 miles, when the destination is at least 10 miles from the starting point.
The bill cleared the House Finance Committee on Tuesday without any opposition. At an earlier committee meeting on the bill, the Rev. Mark Creech of the conservative Christian Action League said he’s opposed to allowing a “bar on wheels.”
Creech said the idea is different than the alcohol currently allowed on trains and planes because train and air travel is limited. With buses though, there’s potential for “incalculable fleets of them, each possessing a bar for its passengers,” he said.
More NC alcohol bills moving ahead
HB 693 was one of several alcohol- and event-related bills on the Finance Committee’s agenda on Tuesday. House Bill 477 would allow event promoters to use vacant buildings on a trial basis without upgrading the spaces for building code and zoning purposes.
Rep. Mark Brody, R-Union and sponsor of the bill, said the idea is to hold a small number of events to see if there’s demand and interest in the space before paying for renovations. Promoters would still need a safety inspection of the building first. HB 477 passed the full House on Wednesday in a 104-1 vote.
House Bill 619, which was on Tuesday’s agenda for discussion only, addresses a tax code problem for breweries that expand into restaurant service. Breweries typically pay the mill machinery tax for the equipment they use to make beer, but if they later add food service that accounts for more than half of their revenue, they’re taxed like a restaurant.
That means higher taxes on equipment purchases. Alex Miller, a lobbyist for the N.C. Craft Brewers Guild, described a brewery in Boone that got hit with a hefty bill for back taxes on brewing equipment after its pizza proved so popular that it exceeded beer revenue.
“We find that situation to be fairly ridiculous,” he said. Now, according to Miller, other breweries are hesitant to add food service for fear of the tax consequences. HB 619 would put brewery equipment under the machinery tax regardless of how the business is structured.
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