KZG’s Eric Orlando Discusses Governor Murphy’s Veto of Legislation Preserving Economic Opportunities for Breweries, Restaurants and Bars
ROI-NJ recently featured KZG’s Eric Orlando, who also serves as Executive Director of the Brewers Guild of New Jersey, in an article regarding Governor Murphy’s recent veto of A4525/S3128 which would have maintained outdoor dining privileges for restaurants, bars, distilleries, and breweries, and allowed craft beer to be sold at seasonal farmers markets.
Governor Murphy’s absolute veto came as a surprise to the hospitality industry after the bill received widespread bipartisan support in the New Jersey Legislature.
On behalf of the state’s craft beer industry, Eric explained that brewery and restaurant owners would be more likely to invest in outdoor operations if they knew outdoor dining would continue for an extended period of time. These assurances and predictability for the future, embodied in the vetoed legislation, is crucial to small businesses like breweries struggling to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s harder when we don’t necessarily know when the next shoe is going to drop based on what the transmission rate is and where they think that community spread is happening,” said Eric.
Despite disappointment in the recent veto, Eric discussed positive changes enacted by Governor Murphy and the State Legislature that have helped the industry throughout the pandemic.
“Week-by-week, they were trying to come up with things to try to help folks out, regarding things such as home delivery privileges or allowing distilleries to make hand sanitizer,” said Eric. “These are things that weren’t on the books until the governor issued an executive order — which was great.”
Due to Eric’s and the Brewers Guild of New Jersey’s continued efforts, new legislation was advanced by the New Jersey Legislature to quickly address the Governor’s veto and preserve breweries’ and restaurants’ ability to have outdoor privileges, and sell their products at farmers markets.
Read more of Eric’s insight and analysis on the state of the brewery and hospitality industries through the full article here.
