Wine Auction Bill Pt 1
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. A bill that would dispense with huge amounts of paperwork for wineries participating in charity auctions flew through the state House and now moves on to the Senate.House Bill 1718 was introduced by Freshman Representative Bill Jenkin of Prosser who says the paperwork alone was enough to discourage participation by some of the small wineries ...
BILL JENKIN ... "The applications that you have to do for these type of events is just, it's insane really, as far as the amount of paperwork that's needed. And that was the biggest problem with the participating wineries. You know, there could be 50 different wineries or more."
Jenkin says his bill would eliminate the red tape and level the playing field for all wineries, large and small ...
BILL JENKIN ... "So, what this does, this allows them to just say, yeah, I'll be at the event, pay, it was going to be $27 but it will be $25, pay the non-profit that's hosting the event. Then the non-profit will present all of that to the liquor control board and the liquor control board, that's what that fee's for, will go through and take care of all the paperwork that's needed and insure that the licensees that are presenting are, in fact, up to snuff on their applications. It makes it real easy for the event to take place."
The bill would change the permit process to allow the host of the auction to receive a single permit that lists all of the participating wineries. It would also allow wine tastings for those wines being auctioned at the event.
Jenkin says these private auctions promote Washington's wine across the country.