Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces New Efforts to Support the Hospitality Industry with a More Efficient State Liquor Authority

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced efforts to support the recovery of New York restaurants and bars, including the proposal to permanently legalize to-go drinks, and to ensure a more efficient State Liquor Authority. The Governor highlighted these proposals and actions at an event at Therapy Wine Bar 2.0, a Brooklyn business that was able to open thanks to a law signed by the Governor in December to allow for temporary permits to serve alcohol. Governor Hochul also announced proposals to update the state's liquor laws and to fund operational improvements at the State Liquor Authority to revitalize the state's multi-billion-dollar hospitality industry, one of the industries hit hardest by the pandemic. To ensure SLA's policies are as smart, efficient, and effective as possible, Governor Hochul additionally directed SLA to consult with industry representatives and stakeholders to review existing laws and identify red tape. More information is available here.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

As I walked up to this beautiful place, I said, why isn't it five o'clock? Then I realized it is five o'clock somewhere, right? Angela, it's so great to see you in this incredible environment where you are clearly using your experience as a social worker, a master's degree in social work, to create an experience known as therapy, to understand that this community needs this.

We need this healing time and you are someone who is at the forefront of feeling this sense of, I don't want to say normal, just better than normal. We have to get back our mojo and get the New York City vibe that makes us so proud of where we live and you are part of that comeback story. So, let's give another round of applause to Angela Terry.

I also want to acknowledge my leader in breaking down barriers and making life a lot easier for our restaurateurs and people who have liquor licenses and that is the Chairman of the State Liquor Authority, Vincent Bradley. I want to thank him for helping us go back a hundred years and re-examine laws that were put in place during prohibition that are literally still on the books today. So he's turning his agency upside down and I appreciate his leadership and his vision for how we're going to do that.

Max Bookman again was, was introduced, but, he was very much involved in the New York City Hospitality Alliance and just trying to make it easier for people. I thank you for bringing your legal talents to this as well.

Chi Osse, I want to thank our council member for his leadership. Brand new on the job. All right. So, you can also take credit for the recovery of your community, very good timing, very good timing. I look forward to working with you.

And someone I've worked very closely with for a number of years, and that is our Senator Jessica Ramos, and I thank her.

Borough president. I love borough presidents. I come out of local government, so it's always about the county executives and the BPs, who are the true leaders, but Antonio Reynoso, I want to thank you for being the great leader that this community needs at this time, and for being a partner of ours as well. So let's give him a round, too.

Annette Robinson, who embraced me years ago, Assemblymember. I reminded her back in 2014, people were like who's Kathy Hochul? She took me to the restaurants and the businesses and made sure that I had a chance to understand the needs of this community. And thank you for being, as we celebrate Women's History Month and breaking down barriers for women as well in elective office, Annette Robinson, let's give a round of applause.

Randy Peers, who I've worked closely with, the Brooklyn Chamber. We saw some tough times and your vision and your sense of optimism really kept this community going. So, I want to thank Randy for all you've done. And a number of other individuals, our community leaders who will be recognized as well.

Again, I love the name of this wine bar. I think we can brand this nationally if you want to, you know, a little franchise. We've got your lawyer, Max, over here. It's really a public service for this community, you know, just that now more than ever we realize how important human connections are, because once you're denied something, once it's gone for you, once you're in isolation, in your own house and going through some tough times alone for many individuals, to come back together, there's a special sense of it's a gift.

It's a gift to be able to have friendship and new romances blossom in places like this and just feeling very human again. And that's the environment that you've created here. I'm so proud that a change in our law has allowed that to happen.

This is why we're here today, in this fabulously diverse and interesting community. I've been here many, many times. As Angela mentioned, I signed a bill into law that did open up temporary retail permits. We did it right before the holidays, December 22nd.

And before then, there was so much red tape. [ringtone] Is that it? Do you have any good music for us to listen to? I feel we need something to keep us going here. Okay. That's all right, my friend, that's alright. But for, for businesses that were just kind of figure out what the future brings, how we come out of this, there was still too much red tape.

It was still a colossal hassle, based on laws that had been in place for so long. And so, you submitted an application back in September, traditional path for on-premises alcohol back in September. I think that's still pending. It's still out in limbo land. And so, what we did with our temporary permit application: we received your permit on January 13th and you received it just three weeks later. And that, to me, is transformative. So that's why we're able to stay open for business here in Brooklyn.

And so, it's more businesses, like Angela's, need that help. We have to get the word out, that we're going to break down the barriers because we have been through so much. And I also, I just love efficiency. I have reformed various levels of government. I look at every single policy that's in place and say, "Why is this here? Justify this for me." And if the answer is "Because that's the way we've always done it," I will say, "Wrong answer, you're out. Bring in the next person who's going to give me a better vision." And that's what we're doing here is empowering the SLA to reach its full potential to continue its work to help our businesses, not just survive, but to thrive. And that's what the whole objective here as well.

And we think about how hard the restaurant and the hospitality industry was hit during this pandemic. We lost, at one point, 64% of our workers. I mean, it was just devastating. And I do have a lot of experience, five years, working in a restaurant, I was actually under age to be serving liquor, but I had a really bad boss when I was a teenager, and he probably broke some rules. I just get that out there. I was underage. I didn't know any better, but I understood, you know, how hard people work in those jobs, how people are so proud of the name of the business when they walk in the door, they wear it on their uniform.

There's a sense of pride being part of this, serving others in a very special way. So we lost a lot of those workers and how we find our way back and to re-energize this whole industry will really be a signal that New York is back, when every single restaurant that was shut down, every single bar, every single hotel, everything is back, but back even better than before. Understanding, again, this dynamic of human connections being so critically important to our psyche and our emotional health.

And that's something that Angela knows a great deal about. So I have found other ways to not just sign this into law, but I said, "As long as we're looking at it, let's really put this under a microscope." And we also announced that we're investing more in the SLA, I mean, they've been doing what they can with the resources they've been given, but they have over 75,000 applications. Seventy-five thousand. That's extraordinary. And that's over 14,000 licensed applications, 30,000 renewals, 20,000 special events, 10,000, just other, I don't even know what other is, but it's 10,000.

You know, they have 114 employees and 30 dedicated to review of those 75,000 applications. That is impossible. And they also have a backlog of 3,700 applications, and that's something we're going to deal with right now. And that is hiring more people, giving them the resources that they've been asking for, did not have.

And that means we're allocating $2 million to hire 39 more employees and 30 people dedicated exclusively to the backlog. So we can start having this explode with energy and excitement and new businesses, and businesses that have been waiting for their renewals. We're going to get it done.

We're going to be doubling the workforce, almost doubling the workforce with those stages. So also, computer technology. We can do a lot more efficiently. We can do this by having online applications. Kind of a radical concept, I know. I'm kind of going out there on a limb, but they have not had the resources to build the infrastructure, to do what they wanted to do.

So we're going to reduce processing time literally by months, by a lot people applying online. And right now it can take on average 26 weeks, we're going to shave that down to almost nothing. So I'm real excited about that.

Also, who would have thought that this would be the most popular item in my entire budget? I've got 10 billion for healthcare and education, 31 billion, 32.8 billion for infrastructure. We've got all these great projects, but the one thing that went viral was to-go drinks. You got to love New York, right?

So, we are proposing to permanently allow bars and restaurants to sell to-go drinks. The regulations, and we want a lot of commentary on the regulations, that's how we do it. It will be processed and reviewed by the agency and they'll get them from the public, from the industry, and we want to hear people's experiences on how we can make this be very successful and leave no business behind.

So we saw that this was a critical revenue stream. This is what kept people afloat during those dark months and years of the pandemic. And we said there has been a change in people's attitudes. There's an expectation now. So why set us backwards? Whether it's that, or even the outdoor dining experiences. I mean, how fabulous is it to go down the streets of New York in every borough and see people dining outside? And so we actually put a significant amount of money in our budget as well to help them recoup those costs.

It's not cheap to pay for those heaters that you have outside or what people did with scaffolding and try to make a whole different experience outdoors. I think it's amazing. It has transformed people's image of their city like ways you could not have foreseen. And so we're going to continue helping those small businesses have money to offset those costs as well.

So also something. When I visited family in another state. I have a lot of family that left, sadly, Virginia. Why can't you have a drink in a movie theater? That's very common in other places. I know we have some representatives from the Senate here. And I'm not saying during Bambi [laughter] I mean, but you know, I love Bambi. I digress but how come Disney always kills off the mother? I just want to say. Does anyone else ever wonder that? Okay, I got to move on.

I think it's the therapy of this experience that I've gone through here. So I've kind of let loose here, Angela. So, yeah, we're going to have a little counseling session afterwards. Yeah, counseling for politicians, that's going to be great. But we really have to get through and just look at all the laws that are in place that are holding us back. And so we're going to keep doing that, find more areas of red tape.

And so we are actually going to be convening a group of individuals to just look at the laws and get back to the ABCs of the ABC law, and question every part of it. So I'm going to continue doing that, investing in our small businesses, the movie theaters, our restaurants, our bars, and just really, truly doing everything we can to reduce the burdens that people are living with.

And increase funding to get businesses, not just open more quickly, but also temporary permits for craft manufacturers, lowering our costs. And so, we've got a whole agenda. When people say, well, this one law to take a look at this? I say, this gives us the opportunity to re-examine our entire process. Whether it's this, where I look at issues like applying for MWBE's, what a hassle that is.

I had started a small business for my mother, a little retail business. I had to go through the whole process. So I'm personally seared with the knowledge of what a hassle it is. And I was a new lawyer and I didn't know what I was doing back then. We had to pay lawyers to do what I couldn't do, because it was so complicated. So we're going to change this.

And I want everybody to know that New York State is not just open for business. We are open for the best, most vibrant, exciting businesses in this country. So, to the rest of the world, c'mon back, we are open. We are so excited to welcome everyone back after the long pandemic. And I feel the energy in rooms like this all over this great city.

So thank all of you for being part of this experience. And Angela, you are a rock star in my book and I'm coming back at 5:05pm. Thank you.

Let me introduce our next speaker here. Let's see, you know who you are, next speaker. That would be Max Bookman representing the New York City Hospitality Alliance.