Grocery wine bill dropped from final state budget

For the second year in a row, a proposal that would have allowed grocery and other stores to sell wine was dropped from the final state budget.

Opposition to the bill, which backers say would have raised $300 million for the state, came primarily from liquor store owners, who have a virtual monopoly on the market and claimed the plan would put many of them out of business. They also said it would have led to an increase in underage drinking.

Thirty Long Island wineries and vineyards opposed the measure.

"We're trying to support the Mom and Pop wine stores that have been supporting us for years," said David Page, co-owner of Shinn Estate Vineyards in Mattituck.

Supporters of the measure, primarily large grocery store chains and some upstate wineries, argued that it would have increased revenue for the state through fees for new licenses and also created thousands of jobs and boosted the state's burgeoning winemaking industry.

"It is disappointing that the Senate and the Assembly chose to ignore the remaining budget gaps," said Michael Rabinowitz, a spokesman for a group called New Yorkers for Economic Growth and Open Markets, which lobbied hard for the bill. Rabinowitz said the group will be watching as talks to boost state revenue continue and said he's hopeful the proposal can be revived.

Opponents applauded the measure's defeat, saying it would have shuttered 1,000 small businesses, primarily liquor stores.

"The legislature saw through the false promises of this bad idea, from the phony revenue projections to the phony job projections, and made the right decision," Stefan Kalogridis, president of the New York State Liquor Store Association, said in a statement.