Nebraska lawmakers work with city lobbyists on bottle club law - WOWT
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Every bar in the state has to shut off the taps at 2 a.m. but some city officials believe private clubs have found a way to get around the 2 a.m. closing time.
“Where private clubs can operate and they can charge a membership fee to their members but then they somehow skirt the law by either giving away alcohol or alcohol is available on the premises where they can operate outside of the normal liquor control hours,” said Jack Cheloha.
Some city officials want the legislature’s help to change the wording in the statute to put every establishment in the state that sells liquor on a level playing field.
Councilmember Aimee Melton wants to tighten up the language in the statute to close the loophole, she says it’s something they’ve been looking at for a while.
“It is a city-wide issue, I mean we dealt with this issue before where it’s in various other districts. We have at least five clubs, we don’t want to make this an issue where people can follow and open more clubs all around the city that are doing the same thing,” said Melton.
There are city officials who say the private clubs operating after hours attract others around their locations and can cause problems that have to be answered by the police.
“So if you have a liquor license, one of the things that come with the liquor license, you have to follow the laws where it’s 2 a.m. you can’t serve alcohol after 2 a.m.”
The city is also looking for some help to keep the big crowds cheering downtown. City officials would like to get more state funding to support the CHI Health Center.
City Lobbisty Jack Cheloha says the state put a $75 million limit to help fund the arena and convention center but more is needed basically because of inflation.
“We’re worried that the dollars have changed from 1999 to 2021 where $75 million doesn’t go as far so we’re trying to raise the cap up to $150 million and then we need to work a little bit on the language.”
“We’re at a point where we would like to continue the turnback tax so that we have money to do capital improvements and things like that to make sure we keep our arena. I mean we’ve got one of the greatest arenas in the entire region and we want to be able to maintain that,” said Amiee Melton.
Councilmember Melton says what happens at the CHI Health Center is good for the entire state.
“You look a head on beds, you look at bringing people into our city with sales tax and the hotel and restraint tax those are all things that we get from people that are coming in from outside of Omaha, from outside of Nebraska so that brings revenue into our state and into our city which we all benefit from.”
City officials admit with a short session and big issues such as prison overcrowding and how to allocate American Rescue Plan Act funding, it could be a chore to get the city’s issues heard.
The 2022 legislative session begins on January 5.
Copyright 2021 WOWT. All rights reserved.
source: https://www.wowt.com/2021/12/06/nebraska-lawmakers-work-with-city-lobbyists-bottle-club-law/
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.