By David Stanczak
I’m not in the habit of complimenting the General Assembly on getting something right, so when they do, I feel obliged to acknowledge it. Just last week, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed Public Act 99-46, which removed the prohibition on “Happy Hours at places licensed to sell liquor. The essence of that law was that liquor licensees were prohibited from reducing the price of alcohol for any period of less than 24 hours. That meant, for example, that a local bar couldn’t offer marked down beer from 4 to 6 p.m. on a given day. If it wanted to mark down the beers, it had to mark them down for an entire day and night. The zeal to prevent people from coming in, loading up, and driving away drunk is understandable. But in the process of trying to prevent that, the law also outlawed a number of ways licensees could offer packages to induce people to come in and buy, not only alcohol, but other things, such as food or lodging as well. As long as alcohol was part of the package, and any portion of the purchase price of the package could be isolated as consideration for alcohol, it couldn’t be offered. The law, along with its expansive enforcement by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, caused considerable havoc over the years for more than one hotel trying to put together New Year’s Eve packages for people.
The new law isn’t any kind of a sellout to vested liquor interests. There are some sensible restrictions in the law. Alcohol servers are required to complete training in basic responsible alcohol service within 120 days of being hired; BOGO’s are prohibited; the happy hours cannot exceed 4 in a day and 15 in a week; and may not be conducted after 10:00 p.m.
The old Happy Hour law constituted legislation for idiots. We will always have idiots among us, and they will always cause problems for us. But when we legislate to make our society idiot-proof, we make all of us non-idiots less free.
David Stanczak, a Forum commentator since 1995, came to Bloomington in 1971. He served as the City of Bloomington’s first full-time legal counsel for over 18 years, before entering private practice. He is currently employed by the Snyder Companies and continues to reside in Bloomington with his family.
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