A new state law could cause serious complications for festivals and special events on the Grand Strand. Starting in January, businesses and individuals may not be able to get beer or wine permits for those events.
The law was passed with the best of intentions. But somehow it ended up allowing only non-profit groups to get temporary beer and wine permits.
Whether it's St. Patrick's Day, Oktoberfest or Bike Week, beer and wine sales are a big part of many Grand Strand festivals. That law, passed by the General Assembly last spring, could put those alcohol sales in jeopardy.
The intent of the law was to make it easier for non-profit groups that hold many special events during the year, to apply for multiple beer and wine permits at one time.
Bars, restaurants, individuals, caterers... they're all left out.
"They would have to be going through a non-profit or a political entity to be able to do any kind of beer or wine licensing on a temporary basis," said Stephen Greene of the Myrtle Beach Area Hospitality Association.
The law won't go into effect until January 1, but Greene says it could be March or later before the legislature can fix it and it'll have serious consequences for events that happen before then
State and local hospitality officials didn't know the implications of the law until this week.
Greene himself wasn't aware until we brought it to his attention. Now, he's spreading the word to all hospitality association members. "Trying to alert them to this, because I think they will be caught off guard, just as much as we were."
State Hospitality Association Director Tom Sponseller believes the legislature will quickly change the law. In the meantime, it'll cause some headaches, he said. "Unfortunately, I would assume people that are accustomed to getting a temporary permit that are not a non-profit, it's going to be a big surprise and hopefully it can be fixed soon."
No one knows for sure how this happened. It was certainly not the intent of the bill in question, which wasn't very controversial.
But no matter how it came about, hospitality officials say, it needs to be fixed.
The legislature will be back in session January 11th.
