HI: Maui Residents Push Back On Loosening Liquor Laws
Allowing restaurants to sell take-out booze is the latest in a series of controversial proposals. “We don’t want Maui to turn into Las Vegas,” says one critic.
By Brittany Lyte
May 15, 2019
The newest in a series of major proposed changes to rules governing the sale of alcohol in Maui County has community members once again squaring off with liquor control regulators.
At a recent public hearing of the Maui Liquor Control Commission, residents voiced strong opposition to a rule change that would allow restaurants to sell alcohol for consumption off premises.
State law already allows restaurants to sell booze to go. But Maui County’s liquor law doesn’t clearly address whether it’s legal to allow restaurant-goers to bring home an unfinished bottle of wine ordered with dinner, for example.
In Hawaii, county liquor laws can be more rigid than state laws, but they cannot be more liberal.
Liquor Commission Chairman Nane Aluli said the intent of the rule change is to replicate state law by flatly spelling it out: Restaurants may serve liquor for off-premises consumption between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.
The commission has deferred decision-making until its June meeting after getting pushback from residents and groups like the Maui Coalition for Drug-Free Youth.
“Why would we want to create liquor stores out of restaurants?” said Katie Folio, a Kula resident who spoke against the proposal at the public hearing.
“We just feel like alcohol is already so readily available here,” Folio said. “We don’t want Maui to turn into Las Vegas.”