On Friday, July 15, the Mass Pack Association announced to its membership that the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth has confirmed that the Association’s ballot initiative petition (the “Expanded Availability of Licenses for the Sale of Alcohol Beverages”) will appear on the ballot as Question #3 this November. The announcement proclaimed, “Not since the repeal of Prohibition has an issue of this importance within our industry been put to voters. This is historic.”

The announcement, put forth by Ryan Maloney, President of MassPack and owner of Julio’s Liquors in Westborough, MA; and Benjamin Weiner, Chair of the 21st Century Alcohol Retail Reform Committee and owner of Sav-Mor Spirits in Somerville, MA, comes after a year-long process that involved signature campaigns and the tireless efforts of the Mass Pack Association to bring awareness to their membership and to the general public.

The announcement breaks down just exactly what a YES vote in November entails:

• A YES vote in November will expand convenience by gradually increasing the number of allowed beer and wine licenses from nine

• (9) to eighteen (18), minus any full liquor licenses owned. Most states allow three (3) to five (5) full liquor licenses. The number of liquor licenses in Massachusetts will be capped at seven (7);

• A YES vote also enhances public safety and encourages vigilance by retailers through prohibiting self-checkout of alcohol beverages and by basing the fine for selling to a minor on a store’s total sales and not just its alcohol sales; and

• A YES vote additionally supports state tourism and brings Massachusetts in line with every other state in the country by allowing for valid out of state IDs to be relied upon by alcohol beverage retailers.

A July 7 ballotpedia.org article entitled “Two Massachusetts ballot initiatives filed a second round of signatures for a spot on the November ballot” explains the somewhat convoluted process of a ballot initiative becoming a question on the ballot, stating that: “The process for initiating state statues in Massachusetts is indirect, which means the legislature has a chance to approve initiatives with successful petitions directly without the measure going to the voters” and that “[the initiative] submitted the required 3% of signatures in December 2021 and were presented to the state legislature in early 2022. Since the state legislature did not act on the initiatives by May 4, the initiatives were cleared to gather a second round of 13,374 signatures to qualify for the November ballot.”

The Daily News reported on July 9 (and then updated the report on July 13) that “[the proposal] to expand retail beer and wine sales…cleared a final hurdle to the November ballot,” which is positive reinforcement to local liquor stores who believe that small business in Massachusetts is under attack and that they are fighting for their survival by undertaking the ballot initiative, which has now become a reality as Question #3 on November’s ballot.

Support local liquor store businesses by making A YES vote on Question #3 in November!