EAU CLAIRE — When wedding and event professionals met to ask questions about the new liquor law the general feeling surrounding them continued to be, “What is this going to do to us?”
Members of the Chippewa Valley Wedding and Event Professionals Group met with State Senator Jeff Smith to ask him questions about the new liquor law and express their concerns. They met at The Barn at Mirror Lake, a venue owned by Heidi Keys.
Smith said he voted for the law, which was amended in November, because it updated an old system.
The law was signed by Governor Tony Evers in December, 2023, according to Ronnie Roll, a reverend and Co-President of the CVWEP.
Roll said venues have a choice of either getting a liquor license, which for some locations is not available, or they can get a permit to serve beer and wine. If an organization chooses the permit, they can only have six events in a year and only one per month.
The law changes will not take effect until January 2026, said Smith. He said during this time they can set up or change a bill to help with some of the concerns people have.
“I’m just telling you nobody is going to walk away from this being exempted or not regulated,” said Smith.
Roll said many of them agree that regulations are important but they need to find a way to have those regulations and still be able to be successful. They also are paying taxes on their income, property, sales, and sometimes even have to pay higher commercial taxes for certain barns.
“Now they’re in this position of somebody coming in and saying, ‘wait a minute, you’re not in the rental business, you’re in the liquor business.’ How does that happen?” said Roll.
Owners of Emerald Ridge Weddings, Bruce and Teresa Olson, were concerned about the liquor law.
Teresa Olson said they had 31 weddings this year and seven planned for next year.
This is a big difference from last year where they had 51 weddings, said Bruce.
Bruce said if they are affected by the liquor law the bars and other businesses in the area will also feel the effects. The weddings they host bring people into the area who end up using the businesses surrounding them.
The event was not the only response to the law. A lawsuit was filed on Tuesday by two venues, Monarch Valley Weddings and Events and Farmview Event Barn, which is owned by Jean Bahn.
“The purpose is to try to have the courts look at the constitutional issues that have happened with the passage of this law…” said Bahn. “We feel there’s violations of constitutional rights that happened with the language of this.”
Bahn’s concerns include that the law is not fair or equally enforced because of the exemptions that are available to other organizations that do the same things.
“What they’re doing is providing a service which is the basis of all economics...” said Roll. “Now we’re having that taken away. Who’s next?”
Most Popular
Comments / 0