Gov. Phil Murphy announced a new coalition called the “Mayors for Liquor License Reform,” a group of 90 bipartisan mayors from across the state who will work together to update the state’s liquor license laws. Murphy was speaking at the New Jersey Conference of Mayors 58th Annual Spring Conference in Atlantic City Thursday. The Murphy administration has called the laws, which originated in the Prohibition era, “antiquated.”
The goals of the mayoral coalition include strengthening their downtown areas and spurring economic development, especially for small restaurant owners that have been left out of liquor licensing in the past. Among specific goals are phasing out the population cap that limits how many licenses can be given in a municipality and creating more progressive pricing for those licenses.
