Hochul Hawks To-Go Drinks, Speedier Liquor Licenses to Lift N.Y. Economy

(Bloomberg) -- New York's hard-hit hospitality industry stands to get a lift from a proposal that Governor Kathy Hochul laid out Wednesday: boosting staff at the state agency that approves applications for liquor licenses.

Hochul announced a plan to add $2 million to the State Liquor Authority's budget, doubling the staff responsible for processing liquor-license applications while also updating the agency's technology.

The authority, with a staff of 114, has 30 people dedicated to reviewing the 75,000 applications it gets annually, over 40,000 of which are for licenses or renewals.

“That is impossible,” Hochul said at a press conference held at a Brooklyn wine bar. “We're going to reduce processing time literally by months.”

The budget plan would finance the hiring of 39 full-time employees, including 30 dedicated to processing license applications. It follows her January proposal to permanently legalize the sale of to-go alcoholic drinks, and forms part of a broad effort to support the state's hospitality industry.

In New York City alone, restaurant employment was still about 21% below pre-pandemic levels at year-end, or more than 80,000 positions, data from the state comptroller show. From March to April 2020, the sector lost 70% of its jobs because of widespread shutdowns.

The liquor agency has a backlog of more than 3,700 applications, which has bogged down application approvals, the governor said. The extended lag time to obtain a license, now averaging 26 weeks, hurts small businesses that still must pay rent while awaiting approval. In December, Hochul signed into law temporary retail permits for liquor sales.

The latest plan would also help modernize some of the liquor agency's more outdated procedures. For example, it currently requires mailing in applications, a process Hochul aims to move online.