Posted on 03/31/2009 7:25:24 AM PDT by Utah Binger
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. served up the most broad-based changes to Utah's alcohol policy in four decades Monday, signing legislation doing away with the state's one-of-a-kind private clubs law and changing the way restaurants can serve drinks.
Since 1969, patrons at Utah's bars have been required to be members of a so-called "private club," a construct designed with the strong involvement and backing of the LDS Church and aimed at restricting the flow of liquor.
"We made a little bit of history today," Huntsman said after signing the bill in The New Yorker, an upscale bar in downtown Salt Lake City.
Tourism officials in the state said the change will have an impact on the state's $6 billion a year tourism industry, but you won't see ads enticing tourists to "Come Get Drunk In Utah."
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
Well, history tells us that PROHIBITION only made mobsters rich.
Party in Utah! Come on down!
Yup like old man Kennedy.
Good to see another one of these stupid laws go. They were just an early form of nanny-statism.
Also makes me think that Huntsman may be eyeing national office b/c it gives him a chance to tone down the rightly or wrongly perceived LDS ‘goody-two-shoes’ image.
It’s good to see the Mormon state adopt laws that honor “free agency.”
Now, we just need to see someone who “honors and sustains the law” bring suit in a Utah court challenging Barry Soetoro quo warranto.
But can I still get HOT tea in SLC??
Ya gotta wonder; with 70-80 of the Utah State Legislature being MORMON; just how well the religion mixes with the secular there.
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