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A1882
ASSEMBLY, No. 1882
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
222nd LEGISLATURE
�
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman CLEOPATRA G. TUCKER
District 28 (Essex and Union)
SYNOPSIS
���� Requires applicants for liquor licenses and license
transfers to notify residents within 200 feet of licensed premises.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel.
��
An Act
concerning alcoholic beverage licenses and amending
R.S.33:1-25 and R.S.33:1-26.
����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:
���� 1.��� R.S.33:1-25 is amended
to read as follows:
���� 33:1-25.� No license of any
class shall be issued to any person under the age of� 18 years or to any person
who has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.� A beneficiary of
a trust who is not otherwise disqualified to hold an interest in a license may
qualify regardless of age so long as the trustee of the trust qualifies and the
trustee shall hold the beneficiary's interest in trust until the beneficiary is
at least the age of majority.
���� Each applicant shall submit to
the director the applicant's name, address, fingerprints and written consent
for a criminal history record background check to be performed.� The director
is authorized to receive criminal history record information from the State
Bureau of Identification in the Division of State Police and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation consistent with applicable State and federal laws, rules and
regulations.� The applicant shall bear the cost for the criminal history record
background check, including all costs of administering and processing the
check.� The Division of State Police shall promptly notify the director in the
event a current holder of a license or prospective applicant, who was the
subject of a criminal history record background check pursuant to this section,
is arrested for a crime or offense in this State after the date the background
check was performed.
���� In applications by
corporations, except for club licenses, the names and addresses of, and the
amount of stock held by, all stockholders holding 1% or more of any of the
stock thereof, and the names and addresses of all officers and of all members
of the board of directors must be stated in the application, and if one or more
of the officers or members of the board of directors or one or more of the
owners, directly or indirectly, of more than 10% of the stock would fail to
qualify as an individual applicant in all respects, no license of any class
shall be granted.
���� In applications for club
licenses, the names and addresses of all officers, trustees, directors, or
other governing official, together with the names and addresses of all members
of the corporation, association or organization, must be stated in the application.
���� In applications by
partnerships, the application shall contain the names and addresses of all of
the partners.� No license shall be issued unless all of the partners would
qualify as individual applicants.
���� A photostatic copy of all
federal permits necessary to the lawful conduct of the business for which a
State license is sought and which relate to alcoholic beverages, or other
evidence in lieu thereof satisfactory to the director, must accompany the license
application, together with a deposit of the full amount of the required license
fee, which deposit to the extent of 90% thereof shall be returned to the
applicant by the director or other issuing authority if the application is
denied, and the remaining 10% shall constitute an investigation fee and be
accounted for as other license fees.
���� Every applicant for a license
that is not a renewal of an annual license shall cause a notice of the making
of the application to be published in a form prescribed by rules and
regulations, once per week for two weeks successively in a newspaper printed in
the English language, published and circulated in the municipality in which the
licensed premises are located; but if there shall be no such newspaper, then
the notice shall be published in a newspaper, printed in the English language,
published and circulated in the county in which the licensed premises are
located.�
In addition, the applicant shall notify by regular mail any person
who resides within 200 feet of the licensed premises if such premises are
located within this State.
� No publication
or notice
shall be
required with respect to applications for transportation or public warehouse
licenses or with respect to applications for renewal of licenses.
���� The Division of Alcoholic
Beverage Control shall cause a general notice of the making of annual renewal
applications and the manner in which members of the public may object to the
approving of the applications to be published in a form prescribed by rules and
regulations, once per week from the week of April 1 through the week of June 1
in a newspaper printed in the English language published and circulated in the
counties in which the premises of applicants for renewals of annual licenses
are located.� Any application for the renewal of an annual license shall be
made by May 1, and none shall be approved before May 1.
���� Every person filing an
application for license, renewal of license or transfer of license with a
municipal issuing authority shall, within 10 days of such filing, file with the
director a copy of the application together with a nonreturnable filing fee of
$200.
���� Applicants for licenses shall
answer questions as may be asked and make declarations as shall be required by
the form of application for license as may be promulgated by the director from
time to time.� All applications shall be duly sworn to by each of the
applicants, except in the case of applicants in the military service of the
United States whose applications may be signed in their behalf by an
attorney-in-fact holding a power of attorney in form approved by the director,
and except in cases of applications by corporations which shall be duly sworn
to by the president or vice-president.� All statements in the applications
required to be made by law or by rules and regulations shall be deemed
material, and any person who shall knowingly misstate any material fact, under
oath, in the application shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.� Fraud,
misrepresentation, false statements, misleading statements, evasions or
suppression of material facts in the securing of a license are grounds for
suspension or revocation of the license.
���� The provisions of section 26
of P.L.2003, c.117 amendatory of this section shall apply to licenses issued or
transferred on or after July 1, 2003, and to license renewals commencing on or
after July 1, 2003.
(cf: P.L.2008, c.56, s.1)
���� 2.��� R.S.33:1-26 is amended
to read as follows:
���� 33:1-26.� All licenses shall
be for a term of one year from July 1 in each year. The respective fees for any
such license shall be prorated according to the effective date of the license
and based on the respective annual fee as in this chapter provided.� Where the
license fee deposited with the application exceeds the prorated fee, a refund
of the excess shall be made to the licensee.� Licenses are not transferable
except as hereinafter provided.� A separate license is required for each
specific place of business and the operation and effect of every license is
confined to the licensed premises.� No retail license of any class shall be
issued to any holder of a manufacturer's or wholesaler's license, and no
manufacturer's or wholesaler's license shall be issued to the holder of a
retail license of any class.� Any person who shall exercise or attempt to
exercise, or hold himself out as authorized to exercise, the rights and
privileges of a licensee except the licensee and then only with respect to the
licensed premises, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
���� In case of death, bankruptcy,
receivership or incompetency of the licensee, or if for any other reason
whatsoever the operation of the business covered by the license shall devolve
by operation of law upon a person other than the licensee, the director or the
issuing authority may, in his or its discretion, extend the license for a
limited time, not exceeding its term, to the executor, administrator, trustee,
receiver or other person upon whom the same has devolved by operation of law as
aforesaid.� Under no circumstances, however, shall a license, or rights
thereunder, be deemed property, subject to inheritance, sale, pledge, lien,
levy, attachment, execution, seizure for debts, or any other transfer or
disposition whatsoever, except for payment of taxes, fees, interest and
penalties imposed by any State tax law for which a lien may attach pursuant to
R.S.54:49-1 or pursuant to the State Tax Uniform Procedure Law, R.S.54:48-1 et
seq., or any similar State lien of tax, except to the extent expressly provided
by this chapter.
���� On application made therefor
setting forth the same matters and things with reference to the premises to
which a transfer of license is sought as are required to be set forth in
connection with an original application for license, as to the premises, and
after publication of notice of intention to apply for transfer
and notice by
regular mail to any person who resides within 200 feet of the licensed
premises if such premises are located within this State
, in the same manner
as is required in case of an application for license as to the premises, the
director or other issuing authority may transfer, upon payment of a fee of 10%
of the annual license fee for the license sought to be transferred, any license
issued by him or it respectively to a different place of business than that
specified therein, by endorsing permission upon the license.
���� On application made therefor
setting forth the same matters and things with reference to the person to whom
a transfer of license is sought as are required to be set forth in connection
with an original application for license, which application for transfer shall
be signed and sworn to by the person to whom the transfer of license is sought
and shall bear the consent in writing of the licensee to the transfer, and
after publication of notice of intention by the person to whom the transfer of
license is sought
and notice by regular mail to any person who resides
within 200 feet of the licensed premises if such premises are located within
this State
, to apply for transfer in the same manner as is required in the
case of an original application for license, the director or other issuing
authority, as the case may be, may transfer any license issued by him or it
respectively to the applicant for transfer by endorsing the license.� The
application and the applicant shall comply with all requirements of this chapter
pertaining to an original application for license and shall be accompanied, in
lieu of the license fee required on the original application, by a fee of 10%
of the annual license fee for the license sought to be transferred, which 10%
shall be retained by the director or other issuing authority, as the case may
be, whether the transfer be granted or not, and accounted for as other license
fees.
���� If the other issuing authority
shall refuse to grant a transfer the applicant shall be notified forthwith of
the refusal by a notice served personally upon the applicant, or sent to him by
registered mail addressed to him at the address stated in the application, and
the applicant may, within 30 days after the date of service or mailing of the
notice, appeal to the director from the action of the issuing authority.� If
the other issuing authority shall grant a transfer, any taxpayer or other
aggrieved person opposing the grant of the transfer may, within 30 days after
the grant of the transfer, appeal to the director from the action of the
issuing authority.
���� No person who would fail to
qualify as a licensee under this chapter shall be knowingly employed by or
connected in any business capacity whatsoever with a licensee.� A person
failing to qualify as to age or by reason of conviction of a crime involving moral
turpitude may, with the approval of the director, and subject to rules and
regulations, be employed by any licensee, but the employee if disqualified by
age shall not, in any manner whatsoever serve, sell or solicit the sale or
participate in the manufacture, rectification, blending, treating,
fortification, mixing, processing or bottling of any alcoholic beverage; and
further provided, that no permit shall be necessary for the employment in a
bona fide hotel or restaurant of any person failing to qualify as to age so
long as the person shall not in any manner whatsoever serve, sell or solicit
the sale of any alcoholic beverage, or participate in the mixing, processing or
preparation thereof.� Each person seeking to be employed or connected in any business
capacity whatsoever with a licensee shall submit to the director the
applicant's name, address, fingerprints and written consent for a criminal
history record background check to be performed.� The director is authorized to
receive criminal history record information from the State Bureau of
Identification in the Division of State Police and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation consistent with applicable State and federal laws, rules and
regulations.� The applicant shall bear the cost for the criminal history record
background check, including all costs of administering and processing the
check.� The Division of State Police shall promptly notify the director in the
event a current holder of a license or prospective applicant, who was the
subject of a criminal history record background check pursuant to this section,
is arrested for a crime or offense in this State after the date the background
check was performed.
���� Any request for relief under
this section shall be accompanied by a nonreturnable filing fee of $100.00
payable to the director.
(cf: P.L.2003, c.199, s.19)
���� 3.��� This act shall take
effect immediately.
STATEMENT
���� This bill requires applicants
for State and municipal issued alcoholic beverage licenses, with the exception
of transportation or public warehouse licenses, to notify by regular mail any
person who resides within 200 feet of the licensed premises if it is located in
New Jersey.� Under current law, applicants are required to have a notice of
the application published once per week for two weeks in a newspaper published
and circulated in the municipality where the licensed premises are to be
located.� If there is no newspaper in the municipality; the notice is to be
published in a newspaper in the county in which the licensed premises are
located.� Since newspaper publication is not required for applications for
transportation or public warehouse licenses, applicants for those licenses are
exempted from the notice requirement in this bill.
���� Also the bill requires notice
by regular mail to any person who resides within 200 feet of the licensed
premises in the case of
person to person and place to place
transfers of alcoholic beverage licenses. These transfers are subject to
similar newspaper publication requirements.�