Archive for October 25th, 2007
Wine Shipping Permit System Passes via Badger Budget Bill
October 25th, 2007
Governor Jim Doyle is expected to sign into law Senate Bill 40, the Wisconsin Budget Bill that passed both chambers of the state congress on Tuesday. Within an amendment to the budget bill are provisions that would strike the existing reciprocal statutes for direct shipping and insert language that creates a permit system for wineries from any state. If signed by Governor Doyle (which could happen “within days“), the budget bill would take effect seven days later.
As of today, Wisconsin is one of only three states, including Iowa and New Mexico, that have reciprocity requirements for wine shipping. Oregon and Illinois also recently passed legislation that removes reciprocity and creates permit systems that will take effect on January 1st and June 1st, respectively. Wisconsin currently only has an official reciprocity arrangement with the state of California. Because of this, wineries in other states technically can not ship into Wisconsin.
The new law would establish an annual volume limit:
No individual in this state may receive more than 108 liters of wine annually shipped under authority of the section. Each individual shall be responsible for compliance with this annual limit.
and a tiered permit system:
(a) For a permittee that ships more than 90 liters of wine annually to individuals in this state, $100.
(b) For a permittee that ships not less than 27 liters nor more than 90 liters of wine annually to individuals in this state, $50.
(c) For a permittee that ships less than 27 liters of wine annually to individuals in this state, $10.
See our previous post for background on this bill. Key changes from the original version passed by the Senate make this bill much less onerous.
