What's happening
This bill adds mead and mead products to various sections of New York's tax and alcoholic beverage control laws, allowing for their production, sale, and tasting.
Why it matters
Expands business opportunities. for small producers and entrepreneurs by officially recognizing mead and mead products, allowing for new farm meaderies and combined licenses with other craft beverage makers.
Creates parity with other craft beverages. (like beer, cider, and wine) by including mead in tax exemptions for tastings, potentially making mead more accessible and attractive for consumers at events and tasting rooms.
Encourages agricultural development. by supporting the honey and beekeeping industries, since mead production requires significant honey, thus providing economic incentives for local agriculture and pollinator health.
Streamlines regulatory compliance. for mead producers by incorporating mead into existing frameworks for alcoholic beverage production and sales, reducing legal ambiguity and fostering clearer guidelines for businesses and consumers.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Tax Mead Like Other Alcohol
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
2 Co-sponsors
History
- Substituted by S1263
- Advanced to third reading cal.155
- Reported
- Reported referred to ways and means
- Referred to economic development
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Tax Mead Like Wine
Signed by Governor · Sponsor Jen Metzger
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
3635
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 30, 2019
Introduced by M. of A. SCHIMMINGER -- read once and referred to the Committee on Economic Development
AN ACT to amend the tax law and the alcoholic beverage control law, in relation to mead
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 6 of section 420 of the tax law, as amended by chapter 29 of the laws of 1939, is amended to read as follows:
6. "Wines" mean and include wine (both still and sparkling and when fortified by the addition of alcohol or spirits), mead as defined in section three of the alcoholic beverage control law, fruit juice containing one-half of one per centum or more of alcohol by volume and all other beverages containing alcohol manufactured or produced by the fermentation of the natural sugar contents of fruits or other agricultural products containing sugar, provided the foregoing contain not more than twenty-four per centum of alcohol by volume, but shall not mean or include cider containing three and two-tenths per centum, or less, of alcohol by volume.
§ 2. Paragraph 33 of subdivision (a) of section 1115 of the tax law, as amended by chapter 418 of the laws of 2017, is amended to read as follows:
(33) Wine or wine product, beer or beer product, cider or cider product, liquor or liquor product, mead or mead product, and the kegs, cans, bottles, growlers, corks, caps, and labels used to package such alcoholic product, furnished by the official agent of a farm winery, winery, brewery, farm brewery, cider producer, farm cidery, distillery, farm distillery, mead producer, farm meadery, wholesaler, or importer at a [wine, beer, cider or liquor] tasting held in accordance with the alcoholic beverage control law to a customer or prospective customer who consumes such wine, beer, cider [or], liquor or mead at such tasting.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD07021-01-9
A. 3635 2
§ 3. Subdivision 4 of section 61-a of the alcoholic beverage control law, as added by chapter 297 of the laws of 2016, is amended to read as follows:
4. A combined farm manufacturer's license may combine two or more of the following licenses: farm meadery; farm brewery; micro-brewery; farm cidery; farm winery; micro-distillery; micro-rectifier; and farm distillery. Provided, however, that the licensed premises for a combined farm manufacturer's license that includes a farm winery license must be located on a farm.
§ 4. This act shall take effect on the same date and in the same manner as chapter 522 of the laws of 2018 takes effect.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.