The proposal would have given towns and cities control over the number of liquor licenses administered, which is currently capped by state law.
When Gov. Maura Healey filed the Municipal Empowerment Act, a bill that would give local governments more control over raising taxes on certain services, one of the more contentious parts of the bill was left out, at least for now.
A part of the bill that would have given municipalities the freedom to decide their town’s own cap of liquor licenses was no longer in the proposal as of its Monday filing, despite Healey’s administration announcing it was part of the bill Friday.
Currently the number of liquor licenses in municipalities is capped by the state Legislature. According to state law, the cap is set for many municipalities based on population, except for Boston, where the quota has barely changed since the rules were set post-Prohibition.
In the last several years, officials in Boston have asked the state Legislature to increase the cap, arguing that the current cap has hurt business owners of color and Boston’s low-income neighborhoods. The quota has also meant that businesses can transfer their liquor license to another business for hundreds of thousands of dollars.