POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro vetoed the county legislature’s resolution to expand business hours of liquor stores. Had he signed it, the measure would have asked the State Liquor Authority to conduct hearings and to consider allowing operators to extend their hours on an optional basis.
In his veto message, Molinaro said he is all for competition and a more open marketplace but believes all 54 liquor stores operating in the county should have been polled as to owners’ opinions before any such resolution was proposed.
“I don’t oppose or object to the hours being extended. I just want to be sure that the public gets an opportunity to express their opinions, the legislature have an opportunity to hear and then take action,” he said.
Molinaro did say he anticipated lawmakers will override his veto.
Legislature Chairman Gregg Pulver said he will hold a veto override vote at the May 13 board meeting.
In defense of the process to adopt the resolution, the chairman said they held two public comment periods as “the same process that we have always used for approving resolutions.” He also said he notified and discussed the potential impact with every liquor store in his district and urged his colleagues to do the same in their districts.
Molinaro said “an uneven playing field … should be addressed” and he suggested local municipalities would be better at regulating the retail sale of wine and liquor for off-premises consumption.
“It is befuddling, at best, why New York has maintained this prohibition-era regime, and I do not know how this county became the last in the state to enable extending hours of operation,” Molinaro wrote.
He noted different schools of thought on how the proposed change in hours should be transmitted to the public – countywide by the resolution sponsors, by individual county lawmakers, or by through a State Liquor Authority public hearing.
Molinaro said “it would not have been an undue burden to, at the very least, reach out to all the proprietors of (the liquor stores in the county), as well as the municipalities in which they are located, to solicit their opinion and provide notice of the legislature’s intended action.”
