Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Power Drunk Polities Pack Proverbial Punches At Establishments Serving More than Punch

It is hard to tell which is greater: the state and city’s disdain for business or distaste for alcohol.

Liquor licensing procedures that require establishments that receive more than fifty percent of their sales from the serving of alcohol to be classified as a tavern or night club are arbitrary and an egregious example of red tape.

A near eastside establishment, the Africana, and countless other establishments under city ordinances and state licensing procedures go through the administratively intensive act of having to report sales figures knowing that the perception of their business could be radically changed if patrons, like many Wisconsinites, choose to spend money on their favorite evening pastime: drinking to the extent they typically do. If the in house bar is too successful, all efforts to build up the reputation of a restaurant are rendered to have been in vain, for according to the state and city, the proprietor must reclassify their business as the night club they never chose to open.

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Having to either fudge sale numbers or introduce ridiculous sale killing measures like introducing fees to their ATM machines or charging cover charges, shouldn’t be necessary to retain one’s reputation as an eatery. Establishments like the Africana shouldn’t be forced to reclassify itself due to an arbitrary law, and there shouldn’t be a whole class of bureaucrats looking for obsessive noise or critiquing restaurant menus in order to catch businesses red handed. A liquor license should be a simple accreditation of an establishment’s responsible sale of liquor not an episode of red tape rhythmic gymnastics. There is no need to stick it to businesses by making them go through an Olympics of administrative paper work.

The city and state need to stop being so drunk with power and let alcohol serving establishments be as long as they serve alcohol responsibly.

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