LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Looking to stem the tide of bar and restaurant closures, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer’s administration is cutting fees — in some cases, waiving them altogether — for by-the-drink alcohol licenses, while granting an automatic extension of nearly 300 licenses that had been set to expire this month or next.
Louisville Forward, which includes Metro Codes and Regulations, announced the short-term measures in a press release on Thursday.
Mary Ellen Wiederwohl, chief of Louisville Forward, said the alcohol licenses changes complement other steps the city-county government has taken to keep bars and restaurants in business, such as easing restrictions on outdoor seating and giving out COVID-19 small business grants using the city’s CARES Act money.
“I think we’ll, when this is all said and done, be responsible for helping to keep a lot of these places we treasure in our neighborhoods open,” she told WDRB.
The changes apply only to bars, restaurants and other establishments with licenses to sell booze by the drink and not to stores that sell packaged beer, wine and liquor.
Metro government is:
Cutting the annual renewal fee for alcohol licenses by 25%. All establishments will get the benefit of the cut, even if they recently renewed, the next time their license is renewed.
Waiving annual renewal fees for extended hours licenses, which allow bars and restaurants to serve after midnight. As part of his COVID-19 executive orders, Gov. Andy Beshear has implemented an 11 p.m. curfew for bars and restaurants, so extended hours licenses aren’t helping business owners currently. Louisville Metro has 429 establishments with extended hours licenses.
Granting a no-cost extension of existing licenses until Nov. 30. This means that 295 establishments whose licenses were up for renewal this month or next won’t have to renew until December. In all, there are 916 establishments with licenses permitting on-site consumption of alcohol, according to Louisville Forward.
All told, the changes will cost Metro government about $576,000 in forgone fee revenue, Louisville Forward said.
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