Bar hours could extend with new legislation
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For years, 2 a.m. in East Lansing has meant slamming car doors, people talking, yelling and all of the other noises of the bar crowd retiring for the night.
But the problem hour, which has spurred complaints from neighborhoods in the downtown area for years, could shift two hours later under legislation approved Thursday by a Michigan House of Representatives committee that would allow bars and liquor stores to purchase a $1,500 permit to stay open until 4 a.m.
The legislation also includes a separate $1,500 permit for businesses to serve alcohol as early as 7 a.m. every day, including Sunday.
The legislation was proposed as a way to raise funds for Michigan’s struggling $40 billion budget, which faces a $2.8 billion deficit. State revenues could increase by about $13 million per year with the money from the permits, said Liz Boyd, a spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
The money could be used to help fund college scholarships, including the Michigan Promise Scholarship, and a community government could decide not to allow the extended hours, she said.
State Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing, said selling the permits is an idea worth looking at as an option in a difficult economic climate.
“At this point in time, we’re looking for any potential revenue we can get our hands on because, obviously, we want to keep our promise on the Promise Scholarship, keep libraries open, fund K-12 to the greatest extent possible, keep funding available for that group of people that need Medicaid,” he said. “We are confronted with horrible economic circumstance here, so we’re looking at everything. ”
But many people question the negative consequences of keeping bars open later.
Passing the legislation could reflect poorly upon the state government, said state Rep. Brian Calley, R-Portland, an opponent of the bill.
“What would the state be saying by doing this?” he said. “It would be kind of odd for the state to try and balance the budget through increased consumption of alcohol.”
Allowing bars to stay open later could put a burden on local law enforcement, as more calls for service likely would occur later in the night, Calley and Meadows said.
And Calley doubted most bar owners would be willing to foot the $1,500 required to purchase a license.
Bar and restaurant owners have mixed reactions to the legislation, Michigan Food and Beverage Association President Ed Deeb said. Deeb said he feels $1,500 is too much to pay for extended hours.
Pat Riley, owner of Harper’s Restaurant & Brewpub, 131 Albert Ave., said he would not purchase a license because people simply would arrive at the bar later in the night, creating no increase in his business.
“There’s enough trouble in town,” said Joe Bell, owner of The Peanut Barrel Restaurant, 521 E. Grand River Ave. “Nothing good happens after 2 a.m.”
Spanish and comparative cultures and politics senior Ashley Porter, who spent nine months in Europe, where bars stay open until at least 6 a.m., said extending hours could have positive effects.
“In Europe, people stayed out until 6 and no one was dying in the streets like they do on college campuses,” she said. “In fact, maybe it would promote sobering up while you’re at a bar.”
Commentary
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Jim
(10/12/09 6:19am)Report
These people you’ve interviewed are idiots. Let the market regulate itself. If you let the bars stay open later, less people will flood the streets at 2AM causing all the problems… It’s amazing what a free-market economy can accomplish.
IzzoForPope
(10/12/09 7:41am)Report
Since I am living abroad, most bars are open until 4am or later with no problems. I think it helps reduce binge drinking in my own personnal experience.
student
(10/12/09 9:46am)Report
While I do find it funny that in order to keep our school scholarships bars are going to be open longer and liquor stores open later, many places in the US and overseas (as IzzoForPope stated) are open until 4am. It’s not that absurd of a change…
David
(10/12/09 9:56am)Report
And $1,500 is too much to pay? If that is not an annual cost, they need to say so, because if it is annual that is less than $5 per day for an opportunity to sell an extra two hours of beer, nachos, popcorn, hot wings, etc. I’m with Jim—they didn’t interview the sharpest knives in the drawer.
agree
(10/12/09 10:29am)Report
the bars are open pretty early on a friday, but still, students don’t show up until 10pm. if they want more bar time, just show up earlier. do you really need to stay up until 4am drinking? it will also just cause more alcohol related problems on the streets of e.l. sounds like a bad idea.
student
(10/12/09 11:30am)Report
The reason why drinking is not a problem in other countries is because its simply another culture regarding alcohol. The US is too immature to have bars open that long. The US sees alcohol as a prized possession for getting “hammered” every Th, Fr and Saturday night. In other countries, alcohol is just an accessory to a party, a complement, but not the party itself. The US has a lot to learn regarding alcohol consumption and a lot to change regarding perceptions and ideas around it.
For most, alcohol is the only reason to go to college. Also, I agree with the owner of Harper’s in that people would just arrive later in the night.
With that said, I think that Michigan universities will oppose this bill as well as college cities and police enforcement. Its just a call for more trouble, and more serious ones some times.
ben
(10/12/09 1:11pm)Report
I would have to agree to David’s above comment. If this is a $1500 annual fee then OFCOURSE every bar owner would do it. And if this isnt an annual fee then the State News has failed us once again with an article that is lacking all of the information.
tedman
(10/12/09 1:53pm)Report
The city of EL will never allow it’s bars to get that license. In fact if it had it’s way, bars would close at 10PM.
Also I doubt highly that the fees would be applied to education. Give me a break.
Playa
(10/12/09 7:57pm)Report
Student- the US does have bars open that long. here in NY, bars are open until 4 AM. i’m not disagreeing, but just saying…
also, it won’t cause many more problems, all the problems that happen at two will just happen at four instead.
city council
(10/12/09 8:02pm)Report
I will, like I have been doing since the ’99 riots, do everything in my power to ruin East Lansing for everyone. I hate Michigan State and I wish it weren’t in my city. I’d give every dollar to our bloated code and police force to keep these pests in line. Students today are all just a bunch of hooligans. When I was in (not college)school we didn’t have time to drink… though history would later show alcohol related spousal abuse to have been peaking. Calculators couldn’t do trig, the internet and cell phones were decades away, and the average American parent didn’t spend $20,000 A YEAR more than they earned in the year. There were no foreigners, and everyone believed in Jesus. There were no Baby Boomers ahead of us abosorbing jobs with no post-high school education. There were also no Baby Boomers to support so that our economy didn’t risk collapse. We never had pre-marital sex and thus there were no STD’s or need for birth control, yet somehow we still all had less than the 2.1 children/household necessary to perpetuate our beloved economic expansion we take credit for. We all grew up to be old people who are fantastic at balancing our budgets.
Erin
(10/12/09 9:28pm)Report
raising more money sounds like a good idea to me.
Honestly I never understood why we needed the government to tell us at what hours we can buy alcohol, anyways.
student
(10/12/09 9:48pm)Report
It looks like some people can see the reality behind this.
This could raise more money if businesses buy the new permit, but what consequences would this have? First, people have more time to drink which means that they will get more drunk and could cause health problems. Second, when you have a lot of severely drunk people that’s not a good equation in terms of security and behavior. Third, simply allowing that much time to consume alcohol is very bad and could attract the kind of individuals that communities don’t want. Fourth, having severely drunk individuals late in night/morning around a town increases the risk of damaged property and attacks on other individuals. Fifth, it doesn’t really help an economy to have people drinking over extended periods of times due to negative effects on labor productivity.
As these, there could be many more detailed reasons why not to expand drinking hours. Also, business owners state that there wouldn’t be more consumption since people would just arrive later in the night. That sound quite correct when you have people that have business issues to attend in the day. Finally, the US is not ready and will never be ready to confront alcohol changes. The American society puts too much value on alcohol. In other countries, individuals are able to control their behavior and be somewhat rational even under alcohol, instead of passing out as in the US.
Experienced Drinker
(10/12/09 11:12pm)Report
Dear Student, I am guessing you probably haven’t spent a lot of time drinking at bars (which is probably a good thing). But let me tell you, if people want to get wasted before 2, they can. In fact usually by 2 most people are slowing down because they are tired. Yes some people do get more drunk between 2 and 4, but that is the exception rather than the rule. Also, if you want this country to view alcohol differently the answer is less laws, and it will be less taboo. Also, they are not many people that stay out til 4 that have to work the next day on a regular basis.
Anyway, to sum up my point. You already have a bunch of drunk people, but if you leave the bars open longer it will give some people time to sober up, and it will not put so many drunks in the street at one time.